Purpose: Topotecan (TPT), a camptothecin analog, is currently used to treat human ovarian and small-cell lung cancer and is in clinical trials for other tumor sites. However, it is unknown whether chronomodulation of TPT treatment is beneficial. We examined the effects of administering TPT or X-radiation (XR) alone at different times of the day or night. Methods: We treated mice bearing human colorectal tumor xenografts at four different times representing the early rest period (9 AM or 3 HALO [hours after light onset]), late rest period (3 PM or 9 HALO), early active period (9 PM or 15 HALO), and late active period (3 AM or 21 HALO) of the mice. We gave either TPT (12 mg/kg, injected i.p.) or XR (4 Gy, directed to the tumor) twice weekly on Days 0, 4, 7, 10 within 2 weeks. Results: Treatment with either TPT or XR at 3 AM demonstrated the greatest efficacy (measured by a tumor regrowth assay) without significantly increasing acute toxicity (assessed by a decrease in leukocyte counts or body weight). Conversely, treatment at 3 PM, in particular, showed increased toxicity without any enhanced efficacy. Conclusions: Our study provided the first evidence that chronomodulation of TPT treatments, consistent with the findings of other camptothecin analogs, is potentially clinically beneficial. Additionally, our findings suggest that chronomodulation of fractionated XR treatments is also potentially clinically beneficial.

Introduction: Hypertension is a disease which shows circadian rhythm in the pattern of two peaks, one in the evening at about 7pm and other in the early morning between 4 am to 8 am. Conventional therapies are incapable to target those time points when actually the symptoms get worsened. To achieve drug release at two time points, chronomodulated delivery system may offer greater benefits. Materials and methods: The chronomodulated system comprised of dual approach; immediate release granules (IRG) and pulsatile release mini-tablets (PRM) filled in the hard gelatin capsule. The mini-tablets were coated using Eudragit S-100 which provided the lag time. To achieve the desired release, various parameters like coating duration and coat thickness were studied. The immediate release granules were evaluated for micromeritical properties and drug release, while mini-tablets were evaluated for various parameters such as hardness, thickness, friability, weight variation, drug content, and disintegration time and in-vitro drug release. Compatibility of drug-excipient was checked by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Differential scanning calorimetry studies and pellets morphology was done by Scanning electron microscopy studies. Results: The in-vitro release profile suggested that immediate release granules gives drug release within 20 min at the time of evening attack while the programmed pulsatile release was achieved from coated mini-tablets after a lag time of 9hrs, which was consistent with the demand of drug during early morning hour attack. Pellets found to be spherical in shape with smooth surface. Moreover compatibility studies illustrated no deleterious reaction between drug and polymers used in the study. Conclusions: The dual approach of developed chronomodulated formulation found to be satisfactory in the treatment of hypertension. PMID:25838996

Purpose: To evaluate retrospectively the efficacy and chronic toxicities of concurrent radiotherapy and chronomodulated infusion 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Methods and Materials: Twenty-eight patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma were treated between January 1997 and May 2000 with 5-FU chronomodulated chemoradiotherapy. Chronomodulated delivery of chemotherapy was chosen on the basis of a lower toxicity profile in the treatment of GI malignancies. The median age was 64 years. Of the 28 patients, 12 were men and 16 were women. Eight patients had unresectable disease and 20 were treated after pancreatic resection. The median radiation dose was 50.4 Gy given in 28 fractions. The median field length and width was 10.6 cm and 10.9 cm, respectively. Concurrent chemotherapy with 5-FU was administered 5 d/wk, with a median total dose of 8.4 g/m{sup 2} (300 mg/m{sup 2}/d). Chronomodulated 5-FU delivery consisted of a low basal infusion for 16 h followed by an 8-h escalating-deescalating infusion peaking at 10 PM. Survival and recurrence data were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier actuarial analysis. Toxicities were recorded using the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group grading system. Results: The median follow-up for all patients was 26 months (range, 4-68 months). The median overall survival for the 20 patients treated postoperatively was 34 months, with a 3- and 5-year actuarial survival rate of 40% and 21%, respectively. If the 3 patients with carcinoma of the ampulla were removed from the data set, the mean overall survival in the resected patients was 34 months, with a 3-year and 5-year actuarial survival rate of 40% and 17%, respectively. The 8 unresectable patients had a median overall survival of 14 months, and none lived past 2 years. No patient experienced Grade 3 or 4 hematologic toxicity or weight loss. Five patients had nausea and dehydration requiring i.v. fluids; only one (4%) was hospitalized. Four patients required a dose

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus radiotherapy is the most common treatment regimen for advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Whether chronomodulated infusion of chemotherapy can reduce its toxicity is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the toxic and therapeutic effects of sinusoidal chronomodulated infusion versus flat intermittent infusion of cisplatin (DDP) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) followed by radiotherapy in patients with locoregionally advanced NPC. Patients with biopsy-diagnosed untreated stages III and IV NPC (according to the 2002 UICC staging system) were randomized to undergo 2 cycles of sinusoidal chronomodulated infusion (Arm A) or flat intermittent constant rate infusion (Arm B) of DDP and 5-FU followed by radical radiotherapy. Using a “MELODIE” multi-channel programmed pump, the patients were given 12-hour continuous infusions of DDP (20 mg/m2) and 5-FU (750 mg/m2) for 5 days, repeated every 3 weeks for 2 cycles. DDP was administered from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm, and 5-FU was administered from 10:00 pm to 10:00 am each day. Chronomodulated infusion was performed in Arm A, with the peak deliveries of 5-FU at 4:00 am and DDP at 4:00 pm. The patients in Arm B underwent a constant rate of infusion. Radiotherapy was initiated in the fifth week, and both arms were treated with the same radiotherapy techniques and dose fractions. Between June 2004 and June 2006, 125 patients were registered, and 124 were eligible for analysis of response and toxicity. The major toxicity observed during neoadjuvant chemotherapy was neutropenia. The incidence of acute toxicity was similar in both arms. During radiotherapy, the incidence of stomatitis was significantly lower in Arm A than in Arm B (38.1% vs. 59.0%, P = 0.020). No significant differences were observed for other toxicities. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates were 88.9%, 82.4%, and 74.8% for Arm A and 91.8%, 90.2%, and 82.1% for Arm B. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year progression-free survival rates were 91

... temperature. T518-2-1 180-200 2 hours. 1 A minimum of two temperature probes must be placed in the heat treating equipment in order to determine that all niger seed being treated reaches the target temperature... schedules. Treatmentschedule Temperature ( °F) Time Directions T302-a-1-2 168 minimum At least 2...

We evaluated four methods for increasing the practicality of functional communication training (FCT) by decreasing the frequency of reinforcement for alternative behavior. Three participants whose problem behaviors were maintained by positive reinforcement were treated successfully with FCT in which reinforcement for alternative behavior was initially delivered on fixed-ratio (FR) 1 schedules. One participant was then exposed to increasing delays to reinforcement under FR 1, a graduated fixed-interval (FI) schedule, and a graduated multiple-schedule arrangement in which signaled periods of reinforcement and extinction were alternated. Results showed that (a) increasing delays resulted in extinction of the alternative behavior, (b) the FI schedule produced undesirably high rates of the alternative behavior, and (c) the multiple schedule resulted in moderate and stable levels of the alternative behavior as the duration of the extinction component was increased. The other 2 participants were exposed to graduated mixed-schedule (unsignaled alternation between reinforcement and extinction components) and multiple-schedule (signaled alternation between reinforcement and extinction components) arrangements in which the durations of the reinforcement and extinction components were modified. Results obtained for these 2 participants indicated that the use of discriminative stimuli in the multiple schedule facilitated reinforcement schedule thinning. Upon completion of treatment, problem behavior remained low (or at zero), whereas alternative behavior was maintained as well as differentiated during a multiple-schedule arrangement consisting of a 4-min extinction period followed by a 1-min reinforcement period. PMID:11317985

Background: Hypertension shows circadian rhythm that there is a rise in pressure from the time of waking or before (about 4 to 8 a.m.), in most people. Conventional drug delivery system of captopril is inappropriate for the delivery of drug, as they cannot be administered just before the symptoms are worsened, because during this time the patients are asleep, bedtime dosing of captopril will not provide a therapeutic plasma drug concentration at the early hours of morning because of poor pharmacokinetic profile and shorter half-life of 1.9 hours. Thus, this study attempts to design and evaluate a chronomodulated pulsatile drug delivery system of captopril which was aimed to release the drug after a lag time of 6 hours. Materials and Methods: Present delivery system was prepared by rupturable coating method. The core containing captopril as a bioactive compound were prepared by direct compression method and then coated sequentially with an inner swelling layer containing hydrocolloid HPMC E5 and an outer rupturable layer consisted of Eudragit RL/RS (1 : 1). Total 12 formulations with different levels of inner swelling layer and outer polymeric layer were prepared and subjected to various processing and formulative parameters like the effect of core composition, level of swelling layer, and rupturable coating on lag time was investigated. In vitro drug release and rupture tests were performed using United States Pharmacopoeia paddle method at 50 rpm in 0.1N HCl and phosphate buffer of pH 6.8. Results: The results showed that as the amount of inner swelling layer increases, the lag time decreases and as the Eudragit coating level increases, the lag time increases and percent water uptake of time-dependent pulsatile release system decreases. The presence of an osmotic agent and effervescent agent helped in shortening of lag time. Conclusion: The system was found to be satisfactory in terms of release of the drug after the lag time of 6 hours. PMID:23071948

The oncogene MDMX is overexpressed in many cancers, leading to suppression of the tumor suppressor p53. Inhibitors of the oncogene product MDMX therefore might help reactivate p53 and enhance the efficacy of DNA-damaging drugs. However, we currently lack a quantitative understanding of how MDMX inhibition affects the p53 signaling pathway and cell sensitivity to DNA damage. Live cell imaging showed that MDMX depletion triggered two distinct phases of p53 accumulation in single cells: an initial postmitotic pulse, followed by low-amplitude oscillations. The response to DNA damage was sharply different in these two phases; in the first phase, MDMX depletion was synergistic with DNA damage in causing cell death, whereas in the second phase, depletion of MDMX inhibited cell death. Thus a quantitative understanding of signal dynamics and cellular states is important for designing an optimal schedule of dual-drug administration. PMID:26965628

The majority of methods for the design of Phase I trials in oncology are based upon a single course of therapy, yet in actual practice it may be the case that there is more than one treatmentschedule for any given dose. Therefore, the probability of observing a dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) may depend upon both the total amount of the dose given, as well as the frequency with which it is administered. The objective of the study then becomes to find an acceptable combination of both dose and schedule. Past literature on designing these trials has entailed the assumption that toxicity increases monotonically with both dose and schedule. In this article, we relax this assumption for schedules and present a dose-schedule finding design that can be generalized to situations in which we know the ordering between all schedules and those in which we do not. We present simulation results that compare our method to other suggested dose-schedule finding methodology. PMID:24114957

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Purpose: The authors designed this investigation to extend the development of a treatment for acquired apraxia of speech (AOS)--sound production treatment (SPT)--by examining the effects of 2 treatment intensities and 2 schedules of practice. Method: The authors used a multiple baseline design across participants and behaviors with 4 speakers with…

... accordance with Sec. 305.3(a)(1), we published a notice \\2\\ in the Federal Register on August 25, 2010 (75 FR... Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Notice of Decision To Revise a Heat TreatmentSchedule for... are advising the public of our decision to revise a heat treatmentschedule for the emerald ash...

A handful of studies have examined the utility of progressive ratio schedules (PRs) of reinforcement in treatment development and treatment efficacy. The current case study explored the utility of PRs as an assessment tool to inform a differential reinforcement treatment package. A PRs assessment was used to identify the breaking point of a functional communicative response before and after treatment. The breaking point was used as the initial reinforcement schedule during treatment. Following treatment, the communicative response increased during a posttest PRs assessment, suggesting the efficacy of the treatment package. PMID:27622131

Multiple schedules with signaled periods of reinforcement and extinction have been used to thin reinforcement schedules during functional communication training (FCT) to make the intervention more practical for parents and teachers. We evaluated whether these signals would also facilitate rapid transfer of treatment effects across settings and…

.... (1) The internal temperature of the fruit must be increased using saturated water vapor until the... Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION... schedules. (a) T106-a-1, T106-a-2, T106-a-3, T106-a-4. (1) The temperature of the fruit pulp must...

..., and T103-d-2. (1)Temperature sensors must be inserted into the centers of the largest fruits. The number of sensors must be approved in advance by APHIS. Sensors must be physically placed in various... trays, bulk bins, or ventilated boxes) must be loaded into the treatment chamber, and sensors must...

A study compared the effects of extinction (EXT) and fixed-time (FT) schedules as treatment for the severe problem behaviors of three individuals with developmental disabilities. During EXT, the reinforcer maintaining problem behavior was withheld. During FT, the reinforcers were presented response independently at preset intervals. FT schedules…

The aim of the present study was to design and evaluate a chronomodulated time-clock pulsatile tablets of valsartan to release it after a certain lag time, independent of the gastrointestinal pH, in its absorption window to cope with the circadian rhythm of human body for blood pressure elevation. Core tablets were prepared by direct compression of a homogenous mixture of valsartan, Avicel PH101, croscarmellose sodium, magnesium stearate and Aerosil. The core tablets were then sprayed coated with a sealing layer formed of ethyl cellulose that was subsequently coated with a release-controlling layer. Three different aqueous dispersions namely; carnauba wax or beeswax or a mixture in a ratio of 2.5:1, respectively, were used to form five time-clock tablet formulations having the release controlling layer with different thickness {B5, B10, B20, BW5 and CW5}. Quality control testing were carried out to the core tablets. Differential scanning calorimetry was also performed to detect the possible drug excipient interaction in the core tablet formulation. The release was carried out, for the prepared time-clock tablet formulations, in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid for the first 2 h, followed by phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) for 4.5 h. The effect of pH on valsartan release was studied through a release study in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid for 6.5 h. Two phase dissolution study was performed to the selected time-clock tablet formulation to predict the drug permeation through the gastrointestinal tract. Stability study of the selected formula was performed at 25°/60% RH and at 40°/75% RH for 3 months. Results showed that a release-controlling layer composed of a mixture of carnauba wax and beeswax in a ratio of 2.5:1 showed a reasonable release lag time. The release lag time of the tablets increased with the increase of the coat thickness, thus B20>B10>B5 with corresponding lag time values of 4.5, 3 and 2.5 h, respectively. Selected B5 tablet formula exhibited a reasonable lag time

The aim of the present study was to design and evaluate a chronomodulated time-clock pulsatile tablets of valsartan to release it after a certain lag time, independent of the gastrointestinal pH, in its absorption window to cope with the circadian rhythm of human body for blood pressure elevation. Core tablets were prepared by direct compression of a homogenous mixture of valsartan, Avicel PH101, croscarmellose sodium, magnesium stearate and Aerosil. The core tablets were then sprayed coated with a sealing layer formed of ethyl cellulose that was subsequently coated with a release-controlling layer. Three different aqueous dispersions namely; carnauba wax or beeswax or a mixture in a ratio of 2.5:1, respectively, were used to form five time-clock tablet formulations having the release controlling layer with different thickness {B5, B10, B20, BW5 and CW5}. Quality control testing were carried out to the core tablets. Differential scanning calorimetry was also performed to detect the possible drug excipient interaction in the core tablet formulation. The release was carried out, for the prepared time-clock tablet formulations, in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid for the first 2 h, followed by phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) for 4.5 h. The effect of pH on valsartan release was studied through a release study in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid for 6.5 h. Two phase dissolution study was performed to the selected time-clock tablet formulation to predict the drug permeation through the gastrointestinal tract. Stability study of the selected formula was performed at 25°/60% RH and at 40°/75% RH for 3 months. Results showed that a release-controlling layer composed of a mixture of carnauba wax and beeswax in a ratio of 2.5:1 showed a reasonable release lag time. The release lag time of the tablets increased with the increase of the coat thickness, thus B20>B10>B5 with corresponding lag time values of 4.5, 3 and 2.5 h, respectively. Selected B5 tablet formula exhibited a reasonable lag time

Ten years have elapsed since penicillin was introduced in the treatment of syphilis. In order to appraise recent trends in syphilotherapy in the world, WHO carried out a detailed study of treatment practices in early syphilis. A questionnaire was circulated to leading venereologists and clinics in the world, and 277 replies were received from 55 countries giving particulars of 294 schedules. A total of 65.3% of the participants used penicillin alone and 28.9% used it in combination with other drugs. In North America all clinics relied solely on penicillin as against 52.2% in Europe; and procaine penicillin G in oil with aluminium monostearate (PAM) was used in 91% of clinics in the Americas and Asia and in 60.6% of European clinics. The most common dosage of penicillin in all stages of early syphilis was 4.8-6.0 million units; but appreciably larger doses were used in Europe than elsewhere, some 39.4% of schedules using 10.8 million units or more. There were single instances of 36 million units being given. Consolidation treatment was given in none of the North American clinics; seldom in Asia; by about one-third of the participants in Central and South America; and, for secondary syphilis, in 59% of European schedules. This study shows that with intensive treatment with PAM the saving in drug cost to clinics over the classical courses of arsenic and bismuth may be as much as £4 per case, but the overhead expenses are, of course, not reduced. PMID:13182588

Two topotecan treatmentschedules in patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer were evaluated. Protocol A (21 days) was 1.5 mg/m(2)/day topotecan on days 1 through 5 of a 21-day cycle; Protocol B (weekly) 4 mg/m(2) on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle. Efficacy was determined by clinical exam, CT scan, and CA125 levels. Forty-three patients on Protocol A and 21 on Protocol B were evaluated. As second-line treatment, Protocol A response was 9/20 (45%). Response to Protocol B was 4/17 (23.5%; NS). As third line or more, the response on Protocols A and B together was only 3/27 (11%). High-grade haematological toxicity was reported in 12/43 (27.9%) on Protocol A and 1/21 (4.8%) on Protocol B (p = 0.04). There was no difference in progression-free-intervals between schedules in second-line treatment. The weekly protocol had lower severe haematological toxicity. Clinical response in third line or more was very low. PMID:27093640

A software tool is developed, given a new treatment plan, to predict treatment delivery time for radiation therapy (RT) treatments of patients on ViewRay magnetic resonance image-guided radiation therapy (MR-IGRT) delivery system. This tool is necessary for managing patient treatmentscheduling in our clinic. The predicted treatment delivery time and the assessment of plan complexities could also be useful to aid treatment planning. A patient's total treatment delivery time, not including time required for localization, is modeled as the sum of four components: 1) the treatment initialization time; 2) the total beam-on time; 3) the gantry rotation time; and 4) the multileaf collimator (MLC) motion time. Each of the four components is predicted separately. The total beam-on time can be calculated using both the planned beam-on time and the decay-corrected dose rate. To predict the remain-ing components, we retrospectively analyzed the patient treatment delivery record files. The initialization time is demonstrated to be random since it depends on the final gantry angle of the previous treatment. Based on modeling the relationships between the gantry rotation angles and the corresponding rotation time, linear regression is applied to predict the gantry rotation time. The MLC motion time is calculated using the leaves delay modeling method and the leaf motion speed. A quantitative analysis was performed to understand the correlation between the total treatment time and the plan complexity. The proposed algorithm is able to predict the ViewRay treatment delivery time with the average prediction error 0.22min or 1.82%, and the maximal prediction error 0.89 min or 7.88%. The analysis has shown the correlation between the plan modulation (PM) factor and the total treatment delivery time, as well as the treatment delivery duty cycle. A possibility has been identified to significantly reduce MLC motion time by optimizing the positions of closed MLC pairs. The accuracy of

... TreatmentSchedule for Methyl Bromide Fumigation of Cottonseed AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection... methyl bromide fumigation of cottonseed for the fungal plant pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp... Manual of the treatment described in the notice published at 77 FR 31564-31566 on May 29, 2012....

Our thinking about radiotherapy (RT) for early-stage breast cancer has evolved considerably over the last several years. Increasingly patients and physicians together are making the decision to use altered fractionation rather than standard 6-7 weeks of conventional whole breast treatment plus lumpectomy bed boost. Adjuvant hypofractionated whole breast irradiation is now viewed as a preferred strategy for many eligible women, and can be completed in 3-4 weeks. Adjuvant accelerated partial breast irradiation is another alternative that is typically delivered in 8-10 fractions over 4-5 days. With improvements in delivery techniques, there has been renewed interest in shortening treatment times even further, with novel intraoperative approaches and ultrashort courses of external beam RT. This article provides a summary of the status and future directions in intraoperative and ultrashort course RT schedules used in the treatment of breast cancer. Outlined are the benefits as well as the drawbacks of these techniques for abbreviated breast RT. PMID:26617209

Abstract Wireless communication has played a significant role in modern healthcare systems. However, the death toll from chronic diseases, such as cancer, continues to increase. Hyperthermia combined with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy is a promising strategy for cancer treatment, and temperature control is critical for the success of this intervention. In vivo sensors are an emerging technology in healthcare. Thermal awareness has also received attention in in vivo sensor research. In this context, we have been motivated to use in vivo sensors to regulate the temperature changes in cancer cells during combined treatment. Limitations in existing in vivo thermal-aware routing algorithms motivated us to use the in vivo “lightweight rendezvous routing” approach. However, smartphone-driven telemedicine applications are proliferating to provide remote healthcare and collaborative consultation, required in combined therapies. In this context, we have proposed a telemedicine application where a smartphone not only regulates temperature scheduling in in vivo sensors, but also communicates with local or remote clinicians to maintain collaborative efforts for combined therapies against cancer. PMID:23234425

Wireless communication has played a significant role in modern healthcare systems. However, the death toll from chronic diseases, such as cancer, continues to increase. Hyperthermia combined with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy is a promising strategy for cancer treatment, and temperature control is critical for the success of this intervention. In vivo sensors are an emerging technology in healthcare. Thermal awareness has also received attention in in vivo sensor research. In this context, we have been motivated to use in vivo sensors to regulate the temperature changes in cancer cells during combined treatment. Limitations in existing in vivo thermal-aware routing algorithms motivated us to use the in vivo "lightweight rendezvous routing" approach. However, smartphone-driven telemedicine applications are proliferating to provide remote healthcare and collaborative consultation, required in combined therapies. In this context, we have proposed a telemedicine application where a smartphone not only regulates temperature scheduling in in vivo sensors, but also communicates with local or remote clinicians to maintain collaborative efforts for combined therapies against cancer. PMID:23234425

We investigated whether the treatmentschedule influences physicians' decisions to refer their patients for radiotherapy. We presented a questionnaire to 104 physicians in various specialties at three hospitals. It included three hypothetical patients with uncomplicated painful bone metastasis: patients with an expected life span of one year (case 1), 6 months (case 2), and 2 months (case 3). The physicians were asked whether they would refer their patients for radiotherapy when a radiation oncologist presented three different treatmentschedules: a short (8 Gy/1 fraction/1 day)-, a medium (20 Gy/5 fractions/1 week)-, and a long (30 Gy/10 fractions/2 weeks) schedule. We used Cochran's Q-test to compare the percentage of physicians across the three schedules and a mixed-effect logistic model to identify predictors of the selection of only the one-day schedule. Of the 104 physicians, 68 (65%) responded. Of these, 37 (54%), 27 (40%), and 26 (38%) chose to refer patients for radiotherapy when the short-, medium-, and long schedules, respectively, were proposed in case 1 (p = 0.14). These numbers were 44 (65%), 29 (43%), and 15 (22%) for case 2 (p < 0.001), and 59 (87%), 12 (18%), and 1 (1%) for case 3 (p < 0.001). Hypothetical patient and the physicians' years of practice and perspective regarding side effects were independently predictive of the selection of only the one-day schedule. In conclusion, the treatmentschedule influenced the physicians' decisions to refer patients for radiotherapy. PMID:27578911

ABSTRACT We investigated whether the treatmentschedule influences physicians’ decisions to refer their patients for radiotherapy. We presented a questionnaire to 104 physicians in various specialties at three hospitals. It included three hypothetical patients with uncomplicated painful bone metastasis: patients with an expected life span of one year (case 1), 6 months (case 2), and 2 months (case 3). The physicians were asked whether they would refer their patients for radiotherapy when a radiation oncologist presented three different treatmentschedules: a short (8 Gy/1 fraction/1 day)-, a medium (20 Gy/5 fractions/1 week)-, and a long (30 Gy/10 fractions/2 weeks) schedule. We used Cochran’s Q-test to compare the percentage of physicians across the three schedules and a mixed-effect logistic model to identify predictors of the selection of only the one-day schedule. Of the 104 physicians, 68 (65%) responded. Of these, 37 (54%), 27 (40%), and 26 (38%) chose to refer patients for radiotherapy when the short-, medium-, and long schedules, respectively, were proposed in case 1 (p = 0.14). These numbers were 44 (65%), 29 (43%), and 15 (22%) for case 2 (p < 0.001), and 59 (87%), 12 (18%), and 1 (1%) for case 3 (p < 0.001). Hypothetical patient and the physicians’ years of practice and perspective regarding side effects were independently predictive of the selection of only the one-day schedule. In conclusion, the treatmentschedule influenced the physicians’ decisions to refer patients for radiotherapy. PMID:27578911

Introduction: A tablet system consisting of cores coated with two layers of swelling and rupturable coatings was prepared and evaluated as time controlled chronomodulated tablet. Materials and Methods: Cores containing Montelukast sodium as model drug were prepared by direct compression and then coated sequentially with an inner swelling layer containing a HPMC E 5 and an outer rupturable layer of Eudragit RL/RS (1:1). A three-factor, two-level, full factorial design was used to investigate the influence of amount of HPMC E 5 and Eudragit RL/RS (1:1) on the responses, i.e., lag time to release and time required for 80% of drug to releases. The dissolution tests were studied using the USP paddle method at 50 rpm in 0.1 N HCL for 2 hr and than in phosphate buffer pH 6.8. Methods: Cores containing Montelukast sodium as model drug were prepared by direct compression and then coated sequentially with an inner swelling layer containing a HPMC E 5 and an outer rupturable layer of Eudragit RL/RS (1:1). A three-factor, two-level, full factorial design was used to investigate the influence of amount of HPMC E 5 and Eudragit RL/RS (1:1) on the responses, i.e., lag time to release and time required for 80% of drug to releases. The dissolution tests were studied using the USP paddle method at 50 rpm in 0.1 N HCL for 2 hr and than in phosphate buffer pH 6.8. Result: The lag time of the drug release decreased by increasing the inner swelling layer and increased by increasing the rupturing layer level. Conclusion: The results obtain from present study suggest that swelling come reputable coating approach gives desire drug release after lag time. PMID:23580937

Cognitive and behavioral interventions have been cautiously recommended as "best practice" in the treatment of pathological gambling. Behavioral interventions, using a range of techniques, have been the most commonly evaluated approach to the psychological treatment of pathological gambling. The recent literature evaluating behavioral treatments…

Purpose A new scheduling strategy was implemented. Before implementation, treatments and planning computed tomography (ct) imaging were both scheduled at the same time. Maximal wait times for treatment are defined by the Quebec Ministry of Health’s plan of action according to treatment aim and site. After implementation, patients requiring rapid treatment (priorities 0–3) continued to have their treatmentsscheduled at the same time as their planning ct; treatments for priority 4 (P4) patients were scheduled only after the treatment plan was approved. That approach aims to compensate for unexpected increases in planning workload by relocating less delay-sensitive cases to other time slots. We evaluated the impact on the patient experience, workload in various sectors, the care team’s perception of care delivery, access to care, and the department’s efficiency in terms of hours worked per treatment delivered. Methods Three periods were defined for analysis: the pre-transitional phase, for baseline evaluation; the transitional phase, during which there was an overlap in the way patients were being scheduled; and the post-transitional phase. Wait times were calculated from the date that patients were ready to treat to the date of their first treatment. Surveys were distributed to pre- and post-transitional phase patients. Care team members were asked to complete a survey evaluating their perception of how the change affected workload and patient care. Operational data were analyzed. Results We observed a 24% increase in the number of treatments delivered in the post-transitional phase. Before implementation, priority 0–3 patients waited a mean of 7.9 days to begin treatments (n = 241); afterward, they waited 6.3 days (n = 340, p = 0.006). Before implementation, P4 patients waited a mean 15.1 days (n = 233); after implementation, they waited 16.1 days (n = 368, p = 0.22). Surveys showed that patients felt that the time it took to inform them of treatment

We present a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations used to quantify the complex dynamics of the interactions between tumor growth, vasculature generation, and antiangiogenic treatment. The primary dataset consists of longitudinal tumor size measurements (1,371 total observations) in 105 colorectal tumor-bearing mice. Mice received single or combination administration of sunitinib, an antiangiogenic agent, and/or irinotecan, a cytotoxic agent. Depending on the dataset, parameter estimation was performed either using a mixed-effect approach or by nonlinear least squares. Through a log-likelihood ratio test, we conclude that there is a potential synergistic interaction between sunitinib when administered in combination with irinotecan in preclinical settings. Model simulations were then compared to data from a follow-up preclinical experiment. We conclude that the model has predictive value in identifying the therapeutic window in which the timing between the administrations of these two drugs is most effective. PMID:26904386

The feeding behaviors of a child diagnosed with failure to thrive were assessed using descriptive analysis methodology to identify the schedules of reinforcement provided by the child's parents. This analysis revealed that the child's appropriate feeding behaviors (i.e., bite acceptance, self-feeding) were on a lean schedule of positive…

One variation of contingency management involves providing vouchers with monetary value for the provision of a biological sample indicating no recent drug use. These vouchers can be exchanged for goods or services. The schedule with which the vouchers are disbursed has been studied and results suggest that those schedules that incorporate…

Compared the effects of fixed-interval and on-demand administration of analgesic medications in chronic pain patients. A fixed-interval analgesic schedule was found more effective than an on-demand schedule in reducing subjective pain and elevating mood. No differences were found between the two conditions on measures of physical activity.…

Structuring a schedule - whether by Critical Path Method (CPM) or Precedence Charting System (PCS) - involves estimating the duration of one or more activities and arranging them in the most logical sequence. Given the start date, the completion date is relatively simple to determine. What is then so complicated about the process. It is complicated by the people involved - the people who make the schedules and the people who attempt to follow them. Schedules are an essential part of project management and construction contract administration. Much of the material available pertains to the mechanics of schedules, the types of logic networks, the ways that data can be generated and presented. This paper sheds light on other facets of the subject - the statistical and philosophical fundamentals involved in scheduling.

RIF-1 tumors, implanted syngeneically in the gastrocnemius muscles of the right hind legs of C3H/Km mice, were treated either with X ray alone, drug alone, or drug and X ray combined. The drugs tested were bleomycin, BCNU, cis-diamminedichloro platinum, adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, and actinomycin-D. All drugs were administered either in the maximum tolerated dose or a dose that causes minimal tumor growth delay. Both drugs and X rays were administered either as a single dose or in five daily fractions. In addition to the single modality controls, seven different schedules of combined modalities were tested. Tumors were measured periodically after treatment in order that the day at which each tumor reached 4 times its initial cross-sectional area, i.e., its size at the time of treatment, could be determined. The effect of treatment on tumors was based upon excess growth delay (GD), i.e., T400% (treated)-T400% (untreated control). Treatment effects for the same combined modality schedules were also determined for normal skin, using the early skin reaction as an endpoint. Dose effect factors (DEF) were computed for all combined modality schedules and were based upon calculated radiation dose equivalents. We also calculated supra-additivity ratios, SR/sub I/ and SR/sub II/, therapeutic gain factors and adjusted therapeutic gain factors. The only drugs to produce significant supra-additivity with X rays were cis-Pt and cyclo.

How a neural network can work, compared to a hybrid system based on an operations research and artificial intelligence approach, is investigated through a mission scheduling problem. The characteristic features of each system are discussed.

Although conventional fractionation schedules have been satisfactory for the treatment of some tumors, there is reason to believe that the results of radiation therapy could be improved in some cases by appropriate alterations in treatmentschedules. The pharmacological characteristics of some of the electron affinic radiation sensitizers have provided added incentive to investigate newer fractionation schemes, particularly ones which deliver the majority of the radiation dose in short periods of time. This editorial discusses three papers describing preliminary clinical studies using multi-daily fractionated (MDF) radiation therapy. Two of these studies also make use of the radiation sensitizer misonidazole. (KRM)

The influence of different helium-injection schedules on microstructure development Ni/sup +/ ion irradiated 316 SS at 625/sup 0/C is discussed. Injection schedules were chosen to (1) approximate the magnetic fusion reactor condition and (2) mimic the mixed-spectrum reactor condition. Dual-ion irradiation to 25 dpa produced strongly bimodal cavity size distributions in solution-annealed and solution-annealed and aged samples, whereas single-ion irradiation followed by dual-ion irradiation to the same dose produced a cavity size distribution with a substantial component of intermediate-size cavities. Dual-ion irradiation produced only very small cavities in 20% CW material, while single-ion followed by dual-ion irradiation produced some intermediate size cavities and greater swelling. 10 figures.

All cases of bronchogenic carcinoma treated with curative intent over an eight-year period were reviewed. Most were treated with 12 x 400 rad in 32 days using /sup 60/Co, a schedule designed to optimize the radiation-sensitizing properties of hyperbaric oxygen. While O/sub 2/ gave no obvious benefit, overall four-year survival was 10.6% and that of patients with good prognostic indicators was 18%. No radiation myelitis was observed. This protocol delivers an adequate tumor dose and appears to be tolerated well by most patients.

Purpose: To compare the treatment results of 2 fractionation schedules for high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy (HDR-ICBT) in patients with cervical cancer. Methods and Materials: From June 2001 through January 2008, 267 patients with stage IB-IVA cervical cancer were enrolled in the study. All patients underwent 4-field pelvic irradiation and HDR-ICBT. The median central and parametrial doses were 39.6 Gy and 45 Gy, respectively. Patient underwent either 6 Gy Multiplication-Sign 4 (HDR-4) (n=144) or 4.5 Gy Multiplication-Sign 6 (HDR-6) (n=123) to point A of ICBT using {sup 192}Ir isotope twice weekly. The rates of overall survival, locoregional failure, distant metastasis, proctitis, cystitis, and enterocolitis were compared between HDR-4 and HDR-6. Results: There were no significant differences in the demographic data between HDR-4 and HDR-6 except for total treatment time. The 5-year proctitis rates were 23.0% and 21.5% in HDR-4 and HDR-6 (P=.399), respectively. The corresponding rates of grade 2-4 proctitis were 18.7% and 9.6% (P=.060). The corresponding rates of grades 3-4 proctitis were 5.2% and 1.3% (P=.231). Subgroup analysis revealed that HDR-4 significantly increased grade 2-4 proctitis in patients aged {>=}62 years old (P=.012) but not in patients aged <62 years (P=.976). The rates of overall survival, locoregional failure, distant metastasis, cystitis, and enterocolitis were not significantly different between HDR-4 and HDR-6 schedules. Conclusion: The small fraction size of HDR-ICBT is associated with grade 2 proctitis without compromise of prognosis in elderly patients. This schedule is suggested for patients who tolerate an additional 2 applications of HDR-ICBT.

ASTER schedules are generated by an automated scheduling system. This scheduler will generate psuedo-optimal schedules based on a priority scheme. This priority scheme is controlled by the Science Team.

OBJECTIVE To determine a treatment protocol for SC administration of dalteparin to cats on the basis of currently available detailed pharmacokinetic data and to assess the effect of SC administration of dalteparin to cats on coagulation variables such as activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), thrombin time, and results for thromboelastometry, compared with effects on anti-activated coagulation factor X (anti-Xa) activity. ANIMALS 6 healthy domestic shorthair cats. PROCEDURES Cats received 14 injections of dalteparin (75 anti-Xa U/kg, SC) at 6-hour intervals. Blood samples were collected before and 2 hours after the first and second injections on days 1, 2, and 4. Anti-Xa activity was measured by use of a chromogenic substrate assay, aPTT and thrombin time were measured by use of an automated coagulometer, and viscoelastic measurements were obtained with thromboelastrometry. RESULTS 2 hours after the second injection, the target peak anti-Xa activity range of 0.5 to 1.0 U/mL was achieved in all cats, whereas median trough values remained below this range. Peak anti-Xa activity had only minimal effects on coagulation variables; the maximum median ratio for aPTT (in relationship to the value before the first dalteparin injection) was 1.23. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results of this study indicated that this treatment protocol resulted in reproducible anti-Xa activity in cats that was mostly within the targeted peak range of anti-Xa activity recommended for humans. Treatment in accordance with this protocol may not require routine coagulation monitoring of cats, but this must be confirmed in feline patients. PMID:27347822

Computer technicians bring to school scheduling a certain naivete regarding the operation of schools. School administrators play a fundamental role of informing technicians about education scheduling needs. (Author)

Purpose: The impact of the delivery of radiotherapy (RT) on treatment results in rectal cancer patients is unknown. Methods and Materials: The data from 788 patients with rectal cancer treated within the German CAO/AIO/ARO-94 phase III trial were analyzed concerning the impact of the delivery of RT (adequate RT: minimal radiation RT dose delivered, 4300 cGy for neoadjuvant RT or 4700 cGy for adjuvant RT; completion of RT in <44 days for neoadjuvant RT or <49 days for adjuvant RT) in different centers on the locoregional recurrence rate (LRR) and disease-free survival (DFS) at 5 years. The LRR, DFS, and delivery of RT were analyzed as endpoints in multivariate analysis. Results: A significant difference was found between the centers and the delivery of RT. The overall delivery of RT was a prognostic factor for the LRR (no RT, 29.6% {+-} 7.8%; inadequate RT, 21.2% {+-} 5.6%; adequate RT, 6.8% {+-} 1.4%; p = 0.0001) and DFS (no RT, 55.1% {+-} 9.1%; inadequate RT, 57.4% {+-} 6.3%; adequate RT, 69.1% {+-} 2.3%; p = 0.02). Postoperatively, delivery of RT was a prognostic factor for LRR on multivariate analysis (together with pathologic stage) but not for DFS (independent parameters, pathologic stage and age). Preoperatively, on multivariate analysis, pathologic stage, but not delivery of RT, was an independent prognostic parameter for LRR and DFS (together with adequate chemotherapy). On multivariate analysis, the treatment center, treatmentschedule (neoadjuvant vs. adjuvant RT), and gender were prognostic parameters for adequate RT. Conclusion: Delivery of RT should be regarded as a prognostic factor for LRR in rectal cancer and is influenced by the treatment center, treatmentschedule, and patient gender.

Phytosanitary cold treatments are attempted for Bactrocera invadens Drew, Tsuruta, and White and Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) by comparison with Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann). Oranges were infested by puncturing holes in the peel and allowing tephritids to oviposit in the holes. The treatments were...

Schedule risk assessments determine the likelihood of finishing on time. Each task in a schedule has a varying degree of probability of being finished on time. A schedule risk assessment quantifies these probabilities by assigning values to each task. This viewgraph presentation contains a flow chart for conducting a schedule risk assessment, and profiles applicable several methods of data analysis.

Block scheduling encourages increased comprehensive immersion into subject matter, improved teacher-student relationships, and decreased disciplinary problems. While block scheduling may offer many advantages, moving to a block schedule from conventional scheduling can be a major adjustment for both students and teachers. This guide is intended to…

The increasing complexity of space operations and the inclusion of interorganizational and international groups in the planning and control of space missions lead to requirements for greater communication, coordination, and cooperation among mission schedulers. These schedulers must jointly allocate scarce shared resources among the various operational and mission oriented activities while adhering to all constraints. This scheduling environment is complicated by such factors as the presence of varying perspectives and conflicting objectives among the schedulers, the need for different schedulers to work in parallel, and limited communication among schedulers. Smooth interaction among schedulers requires the use of protocols that govern such issues as resource sharing, authority to update the schedule, and communication of updates. This paper addresses the development and characteristics of such protocols and their use in a distributed scheduling environment that incorporates computer-aided scheduling tools. An example problem is drawn from the domain of space shuttle mission planning.

A mathematical model for job scheduling in a specified context is presented. The model uses both linear programming and combinatorial methods. While designed with a view toward optimization of scheduling of facility and plant operations at the Deep Space Communications Complex, the context is sufficiently general to be widely applicable. The general scheduling problem including options for scheduling objectives is discussed and fundamental parameters identified. Mathematical algorithms for partitioning problems germane to scheduling are presented.

This article reviews the management of an operating room (OR) schedule and use of the schedule to add value to an organization. We review the methodology of an OR block schedule, daily OR schedule management, and post anesthesia care unit patient flow. We discuss the importance of a well-managed OR schedule to ensure smooth patient care, not only in the OR, but throughout the entire hospital. PMID:26610624

In the United States, physicians are faced with two opposing dilemmas in the treatment of pain - the potential for drug abuse and diversion, and the possible undertreatment of pain. While controlled prescription drugs such as narcotic analgesics, anxiolytics, antidepressants, stimulants, and sedative-hypnotics, play a legitimate role in managing chronic pain and other conditions, the illicit use of prescribed medicines is increasing at epidemic proportions. Diversion and abuse of prescription drugs is costly in terms of addiction, overdose, death, and related criminal activities, but chronic pain carries significant economic, social, and health impact as well. The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), as the introducing organization, was joined by several physician and nurse practitioner organizations in support of the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER) Act of 2005, legislation that not only will give physicians an information tool to aid in prescribing controlled substances but also will help identify illicit use and abuse. NASPER is the law that provides for the establishment of a controlled substances monitoring program in each state. The concept for NASPER originated with ASIPP and was modeled after the highly successful Kentucky All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Program (KASPER). Legislation was introduced in the United States House of Representatives during three different Congresses, the 107th, 108th, and 109th, by Reps. Edward Whitfield (R-KY) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ). It was first introduced in the United States Senate in the 107th Congress by Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AK), and in the 108th and 109th by Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), with multiple cosponsors in both chambers. NASPER passed the House on July 27, 2005, by voice vote and passed the Senate by unanimous consent on July 29, 2005. President George W. Bush signed NASPER on August 11, 2005, and it became Public Law

The evidence-based practice movement has focused on identifying, disseminating, and promoting the adoption of evidence-based interventions. Despite advances in this movement, numerous barriers, such as the lack of treatment integrity assessment methods, remain as challenges in implementation. Accurate teacher self-report could be an efficient…

We wished to evaluate the effects of FSH/LH ratio and number of doses of p-FSH during a superovulatory treatment on ovulation rate and embryo production (Experiment I). In Experiment II, we studied the efficacy of fertilization after various insemination schedules in superovulated donors. In Experiment I estrus was synchronized in 40 ewes (FGA, for 9 days plus PGF2alpha on Day 7) and the ewes were randomly assigned to four treatment groups as follows (n = 10 ewes each): Group A: four p-FSH doses with the FSH/LH ratio held constant (1.6); Group B: four p-FSH doses with the FSH/LH ratio decreasing (FSH/LH 1.6-1.0-0.6-0.3); Group C: eight p-FSH doses with the FSH/LH ratio held constant (1.6); Group D: eight p-FSH doses and FSH/LH ratio decreasing (1.6-1.6, 1.0-1.0, 0.6-0.6, 0.3-0.3). p-FSH administrations were performed twice daily 12 h apart. The ewes were mated at the onset of estrus and again after 12 and 24 h; then, one ram per four ewes was maintained with the ewes for two additional days. Ovarian response and embryo production were assessed on Day 7 after estrus. Experiment II. Three groups (n = 10 each) of superovulated ewes were inseminated as follows: Group M: mated at onset of estrus; Group AI: artificial insemination 30 h after onset of estrus; M + AI) mating at onset of estrus and intrauterine AI performed 30 h from estrus with fresh semen. Results of Experiment I showed that treatment (D) improved (P < 0.05) ovulatory response in comparison to Groups (C) and (A). The fertilization rate was lower (P < 0.01) in Group D) than Group (A). Also the proportion of transferable embryos was lower in Group (D) in comparison to all the other treatments (P < 0.01). Group A gave the best production of embryos (7.3/ewe; 89.0% transferable). In Experiment II, combined mating plus AI improved fertilization rate (80.3%) compared to both mating (P < 0.01) and AI (P < 0.02) alone. PMID:15763116

A method and system for job backfill scheduling dedicated heterogeneous nodes in a multi-node computing environment. Heterogeneous nodes are grouped into homogeneous node sub-pools. For each sub-pool, a free node schedule (FNS) is created so that the number of to chart the free nodes over time. For each prioritized job, using the FNS of sub-pools having nodes useable by a particular job, to determine the earliest time range (ETR) capable of running the job. Once determined for a particular job, scheduling the job to run in that ETR. If the ETR determined for a lower priority job (LPJ) has a start time earlier than a higher priority job (HPJ), then the LPJ is scheduled in that ETR if it would not disturb the anticipated start times of any HPJ previously scheduled for a future time. Thus, efficient utilization and throughput of such computing environments may be increased by utilizing resources otherwise remaining idle.

... Recommendations Why Immunize? Vaccines: The Basics Instant Childhood Immunization Schedule Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir Get ... date. See Disclaimer for additional details. Based on Immunization Schedule for Children 0 through 6 Years of ...

Schedule Risk Assessment needs to determine the probability of finishing on or before a given point in time. Task in a schedule should reflect the "most likely" duration for each task. IN reality, each task is different and has a varying degree of probability of finishing within or after the duration specified. Schedule risk assessment attempt to quantify these probabilities by assigning values to each task. Bridges the gap between CPM scheduling and the project's need to know the likelihood of "when".

The goal of this research is to apply reinforcement learning methods to real-world problems like scheduling. In this preliminary paper, we show that learning to solve scheduling problems such as the Space Shuttle Payload Processing and the Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) scheduling can be usefully studied in the reinforcement learning framework. We discuss some of the special challenges posed by the scheduling domain to these methods and propose some possible solutions we plan to implement.

Parallel algorithms are given for scheduling problems such as scheduling to minimize the number of tardy jobs, job sequencing with deadlines, scheduling to minimize earliness and tardiness penalties, channel assignment, and minimizing the mean finish time. The shared memory model of parallel computers is used to obtain fast algorithms. 26 references.

What are the effects of block scheduling? Results of transitioning from traditional to block scheduling are mixed. Some studies indicate no change in achievement results, nor change in teachers' opinions about instructional strategies. Other studies show that block scheduling doesn't work well for Advanced Placement or Music courses, that "hard to…

Purpose Medium-dose (1 g/kg) intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is effective in the majority of patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) but some patients who do not respond to medium-dose IVIG are at high risk for the development of coronary artery lesions (CALs). The purpose of this study was to identify the clinical predictors associated with unresponsiveness to medium-dose IVIG and the development of CALs. Methods A retrospective study was performed in 91 children with KD who were treated with medium-dose IVIG at our institution from January 2004 to December 2013. We classified the patients into responders (group 1; n=68) and nonresponders (group 2; n=23). We compared demographic, laboratory, and echocardiographic data between the 2 groups. Results Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified 6 variables as predictors for resistance to medium-dose IVIG. We generated a predictive scoring system assigning 1 point each for percentage of neutrophils ≥65%, C-reactive protein≥100 mg/L, aspartate aminotransferase≥100 IU/L, and alanine aminotransferase≥100 IU/L, as well as 2 points for less than 5 days of illness, and serum sodium level≤136 mmol/L. Using a cutoff point of ≥4 with this scoring system, we could predict nonresponsiveness to medium-dose IVIG with 74% sensitivity and 71% specificity. Conclusion If a patient has a low-risk score in this system, medium-dose IVIG can be recommended as the initial treatment. Through this process, we can minimize the adverse effects of high-dose IVIG and incidence of CALs. PMID:27186228

The DSN (Deep Space Network) Scheduling Engine targets all space missions that use DSN services. It allows clients to issue scheduling, conflict identification, conflict resolution, and status requests in XML over a Java Message Service interface. The scheduling requests may include new requirements that represent a set of tracks to be scheduled under some constraints. This program uses a heuristic local search to schedule a variety of schedule requirements, and is being infused into the Service Scheduling Assembly, a mixed-initiative scheduling application. The engine resolves conflicting schedules of resource allocation according to a range of existing and possible requirement specifications, including optional antennas; start of track and track duration ranges; periodic tracks; locks on track start, duration, and allocated antenna; MSPA (multiple spacecraft per aperture); arraying/VLBI (very long baseline interferometry)/delta DOR (differential one-way ranging); continuous tracks; segmented tracks; gap-to-track ratio; and override or block-out of requirements. The scheduling models now include conflict identification for SOA(start of activity), BOT (beginning of track), RFI (radio frequency interference), and equipment constraints. This software will search through all possible allocations while providing a best-effort solution at any time. The engine reschedules to accommodate individual emergency tracks in 0.2 second, and emergency antenna downtime in 0.2 second. The software handles doubling of one mission's track requests over one week (to 42 total) in 2.7 seconds. Further tests will be performed in the context of actual schedules.

This paper is a consolidated report on ten major planning and scheduling systems that have been developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A description of each system, its components, and how it could be potentially used in private industry is provided in this paper. The planning and scheduling technology represented by the systems ranges from activity based scheduling employing artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to constraint based, iterative repair scheduling. The space related application domains in which the systems have been deployed vary from Space Shuttle monitoring during launch countdown to long term Hubble Space Telescope (HST) scheduling. This paper also describes any correlation that may exist between the work done on different planning and scheduling systems. Finally, this paper documents the lessons learned from the work and research performed in planning and scheduling technology and describes the areas where future work will be conducted.

Modulo scheduling is a framework within which algorithms for software pipelining innermost loops may be defined. The framework specifies a set of constraints that must be met in order to achieve a legal modulo schedule. A wide variety of algorithms and heuristics can be defined within this framework. Little work has been done to evaluate and compare alternative algorithms and heuristics for modulo scheduling from the viewpoints of schedule quality as well as computational complexity. This, along with a vague and unfounded perception that modulo scheduling is computationally expensive as well as difficult to implement, have inhibited its corporation into product compilers. This paper presents iterative modulo scheduling, a practical algorithm that is capable of dealing with realistic machine models. The paper also characterizes the algorithm in terms of the quality of the generated schedules as well as the computational incurred.

This paper provides an analytical formulation to predict scheduling success for a class of problems frequently referred to as activity scheduling. Space Network communications scheduling is an example of activity scheduling. The principal assumption is that the activity start times are randomly distributed over the available time in the time line. The formulation makes it possible to estimate how much of the demand can be scheduled as a function of the demand, number of resources, activity duration, and activity flexibility. The paper includes computed results for a variety of resource and demand conditions. The results demonstrate that even with highly flexible activities, it is difficult to schedule demand greater than 60 percent of resources without the use of optimization and conflict resolution capabilities in the scheduling system.

This manual will be of interest to new transit schedulers, experienced schedulers, transit planners, operating staff, and others who need to be conversant with the scheduling process. The materials clearly describe all steps in the bus and light rail scheduling process, under TCRP Project A-11, Transit Scheduling: A Manual with Materials, research was undertaken by Transportation Management and Design of Solana Beach, California, to prepare a transit scheduling manual that incorporates modern training techniques for bus and light rail transit scheduling. The manual consists of two sections: a basic treatment and an advanced section. The basic-level section is in an instructional format designed primarily for novice schedulers and other transit staff. The advance section covers more complex scheduling requirements. Each section may be used sequentially or independently and is designed to integrate with agency apprenticeship and on-the-job training.

The Space Station era presents a highly-complex multi-mission planning and scheduling environment exercised over a highly distributed system. In order to automate the scheduling process, customers require a mechanism for communicating their scheduling requirements to NASA. A request language that a remotely-located customer can use to specify his scheduling requirements to a NASA scheduler, thus automating the customer-scheduler interface, is described. This notation, Flexible Envelope-Request Notation (FERN), allows the user to completely specify his scheduling requirements such as resource usage, temporal constraints, and scheduling preferences and options. The FERN also contains mechanisms for representing schedule and resource availability information, which are used in the inter-scheduler inconsistency resolution process. Additionally, a scheduler is described that can accept these requests, process them, generate schedules, and return schedule and resource availability information to the requester. The Request-Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE) was designed to function either as an independent scheduler or as a scheduling element in a network of schedulers. When used in a network of schedulers, each ROSE communicates schedule and resource usage information to other schedulers via the FERN notation, enabling inconsistencies to be resolved between schedulers. Individual ROSE schedules are created by viewing the problem as a constraint satisfaction problem with a heuristically guided search strategy.

The Air Force Space Command schedules telemetry, tracking and control activities across the Air Force Satellite Control network. The Range Scheduling Aid (RSA) is a rapid prototype combining a user-friendly, portable, graphical interface with a sophisticated object-oriented database. The RSA has been a rapid prototyping effort whose purpose is to elucidate and define suitable technology for enhancing the performance of the range schedulers. Designing a system to assist schedulers in their task and using their current techniques as well as enhancements enabled by an electronic environment, has created a continuously developing model that will serve as a standard for future range scheduling systems. The RSA system is easy to use, easily ported between platforms, fast, and provides a set of tools for the scheduler that substantially increases his productivity.

With the ever increasing level of automation of astronomical telescopes the benefits and feasibility of automated planning and scheduling are becoming more apparent. Improved efficiency and increased overall telescope utilization are the most obvious goals. Automated scheduling at some level has been done for several satellite observatories, but the requirements on these systems were much less stringent than on modern ground or satellite observatories. The scheduling problem is particularly acute for Hubble Space Telescope: virtually all observations must be planned in excruciating detail weeks to months in advance. Space Telescope Science Institute has recently made significant progress on the scheduling problem by exploiting state-of-the-art artificial intelligence software technology. What is especially interesting is that this effort has already yielded software that is well suited to scheduling groundbased telescopes, including the problem of optimizing the coordinated scheduling of more than one telescope.

With the ever increasing level of automation of astronomical telescopes the benefits and feasibility of automated planning and scheduling are becoming more apparent. Improved efficiency and increased overall telescope utilization are the most obvious goals. Automated scheduling at some level has been done for several satellite observatories, but the requirements on these systems were much less stringent than on modern ground or satellite observatories. The scheduling problem is particularly acute for Hubble Space Telescope: virtually all observations must be planned in excruciating detail weeks to months in advance. Space Telescope Science Institute has recently made significant progress on the scheduling problem by exploiting state-of-the-art artificial intelligence software technology. What is especially interesting is that this effort has already yielded software that is well suited to scheduling groundbased telescopes, including the problem of optimizing the coordinated scheduling of more than one telescope.

Range Scheduling Aid (RSA) is presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: satellite control network; current and new approaches to range scheduling; MITRE tasking; RSA features; RSA display; constraint based analytic capability; RSA architecture; and RSA benefits.

A discussion of block scheduling for second language instruction looks at the advantages and disadvantages and offers some suggestions for classroom management and course organization. It is argued that block scheduling may offer a potential solution to large classes, insufficient time for labs, too little individualized instruction; few…

Achieving flexibility without losing student accountability is a challenge that faces every school. With a fluid block schedule, as described here, accountability is maintained without inhibiting flexibility. An additional advantage is that three levels of schedule decision making take some of the pressure off the principal. (Editor)

Driven by stable or declining financial resources many school districts are considering the costs and benefits of a seven-period day. While there is limited evidence that any particular scheduling model has a greater impact on student learning than any other, it is clear that the school schedule is a tool that can significantly impact teacher…

Why do a trimester schedule? With the advent of block scheduling, many high schools conducted research on utilizing that plan in a trimester format. There appeared to be three issues that most schools faced: (1) How to provide substantive instructional time that was not fragmented?; (2) How does the school climate contribute positively to…

TIGRAS is client-side software, which provides tracking-station equipment planning, allocation, and scheduling services to the DSMS (Deep Space Mission System). TIGRAS provides functions for schedulers to coordinate the DSN (Deep Space Network) antenna usage time and to resolve the resource usage conflicts among tracking passes, antenna calibrations, maintenance, and system testing activities. TIGRAS provides a fully integrated multi-pane graphical user interface for all scheduling operations. This is a great improvement over the legacy VAX VMS command line user interface. TIGRAS has the capability to handle all DSN resource scheduling aspects from long-range to real time. TIGRAS assists NASA mission operations for DSN tracking of station equipment resource request processes from long-range load forecasts (ten years or longer), to midrange, short-range, and real-time (less than one week) emergency tracking plan changes. TIGRAS can be operated by NASA mission operations worldwide to make schedule requests for the DSN station equipment.

Rats’ performance on a progressive-ratio schedule maintained by sucrose (0.6 M, 50 μl) and corn oil (100%, 25 μl) reinforcers was assessed using a model derived from Killeen’s (1994) theory of schedule-controlled behaviour, ‘Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement’. When the rats were maintained at 80% of their free-feeding body weights, the parameter expressing incentive value, a, was greater for the corn oil than for the sucrose reinforcer; the response-time parameter, δ, did not differ between the reinforcer types, but a parameter derived from the linear waiting principle (T0), indicated that the minimum post-reinforcement pause was longer for corn oil than for sucrose. When the rats were maintained under free-feeding conditions, a was reduced, indicating a reduction of incentive value, but δ was unaltered. Under the food-deprived condition, the CB1 cannabinoid receptor agonist Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC: 0.3, 1 and 3 mg kg−1) increased the value of a for sucrose but not for corn oil, suggesting a selective enhancement of the incentive value of sucrose; none of the other parameters was affected by THC. The results provide new information about the sensitivity of the model’s parameters to deprivation and reinforcer quality, and suggest that THC selectively enhances the incentive value of sucrose. PMID:25637881

The purpose of schedule management is to provide the framework for time-phasing, resource planning, coordination, and communicating the necessary tasks within a work effort. The intent is to improve schedule management by providing recommended concepts, processes, and techniques used within the Agency and private industry. The intended function of this handbook is two-fold: first, to provide guidance for meeting the scheduling requirements contained in NPR 7120.5, NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements, NPR 7120.7, NASA Information Technology and Institutional Infrastructure Program and Project Requirements, NPR 7120.8, NASA Research and Technology Program and Project Management Requirements, and NPD 1000.5, Policy for NASA Acquisition. The second function is to describe the schedule management approach and the recommended best practices for carrying out this project control function. With regards to the above project management requirements documents, it should be noted that those space flight projects previously established and approved under the guidance of prior versions of NPR 7120.5 will continue to comply with those requirements until project completion has been achieved. This handbook will be updated as needed, to enhance efficient and effective schedule management across the Agency. It is acknowledged that most, if not all, external organizations participating in NASA programs/projects will have their own internal schedule management documents. Issues that arise from conflicting schedule guidance will be resolved on a case by case basis as contracts and partnering relationships are established. It is also acknowledged and understood that all projects are not the same and may require different levels of schedule visibility, scrutiny and control. Project type, value, and complexity are factors that typically dictate which schedule management practices should be employed.

College scheduling system and operating procedure objectives influence efficient use of resources. Theoretical and practical considerations are outlined, including a step-by-step assessment of an institution's enrollment capacity and discussion of centralized or reassignable classrooms. (Author/MSE)

Schedule Risk Assessment (SRA) determines the probability of finishing on or before a given point in time. This viewgraph presentation introduces the prerequisites, probability distribution curves, special conditions, calculations, and results analysis for SRA.

We investigate missions where communications resources are limited, requiring autonomous planning and execution. Unlike typical networks, spacecraft networks are also suited to automated planning and scheduling because many communications can be planned in advance.

The hardware development schedule for the Common Lunar Lander's (CLLs) tracking system is presented. Among the topics covered are the following: historical perspective, solution options, industry contacts, and the rationale for selection.

Resupply scheduling for the Space Station presents some formidable logistics problems. One of the most basic problems is assigning supplies to a series of shuttle resupply missions. A prototype logistics expert system which constructs resupply schedules was developed. This prototype is able to reconstruct feasible resupply plans. In addition, analysts can use the system to evaluate the impact of adding, deleting or modifying launches, cargo space, experiments, etc.

This paper extends the Tiger, Hanley, and Bruzek (2008) review of functional communication training (FCT) by reviewing the published literature on reinforcement schedule thinning following FCT. As noted by Tiger et al. and others, schedule thinning may be necessary when the newly acquired communication response occurs excessively, to the extent that reinforcing it consistently is not practical in the natural environment. We provide a review of this literature including a discussion of each of the more commonly used schedule arrangements used for this purpose, outcomes obtained, a description of methods for progressing toward the terminal schedule, and a description of supplemental treatment components aimed at maintaining low levels of problem behavior during schedule thinning. Recommendations for schedule thinning are then provided. Finally, conceptual issues related to the reemergence of problem behavior during schedule thinning and areas for future research are discussed. PMID:22532899

Behavior-reduction interventions typically employ dense schedules of alternative reinforcement in conjunction with operant extinction for problem behavior. After problem behavior is reduced in the initial treatment stages, schedule thinning is routinely conducted to make the intervention more practical in natural environments. In the current investigation, two methods for thinning alternative reinforcement schedules were compared for 3 clients who exhibited severe problem behavior. In the dense-to-lean (DTL) condition, reinforcement was delivered on relatively dense schedules (using noncontingent reinforcement for 1 participant and functional communication training for 2 participants), followed by systematic schedule thinning to progressively leaner schedules. During the fixed lean (FL) condition, reinforcement was delivered on lean schedules (equivalent to the terminal schedule of the DTL condition). The FL condition produced a quicker attainment of individual treatment goals for 2 of the 3 participants. The results are discussed in terms of the potential utility of using relatively lean schedules at treatment outset. PMID:15529889

The GERRY scheduling system developed by NASA Ames with assistance from the Lockheed Space Operations Company, and the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, uses a method called constraint-based iterative repair. Using this technique, one encodes both hard rules and preference criteria into data structures called constraints. GERRY repeatedly attempts to improve schedules by seeking repairs for violated constraints. The system provides a general scheduling framework which is being tested on two NASA applications. The larger of the two is the Space Shuttle Ground Processing problem which entails the scheduling of all the inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks required to prepare the orbiter for flight. The other application involves power allocation for the NASA Ames wind tunnels. Here the system will be used to schedule wind tunnel tests with the goal of minimizing power costs. In this paper, we describe the GERRY system and its application to the Space Shuttle problem. We also speculate as to how the system would be used for manufacturing, transportation, and military problems.

The GERRY scheduling system developed by NASA Ames with assistance from the Lockheed Space Operations Company, and the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, uses a method called constraint-based iterative repair. Using this technique, one encodes both hard rules and preference criteria into data structures called constraints. GERRY repeatedly attempts to improve schedules by seeking repairs for violated constraints. The system provides a general scheduling framework which is being tested on two NASA applications. The larger of the two is the Space Shuttle Ground Processing problem which entails the scheduling of all the inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks required to prepare the orbiter for flight. The other application involves power allocation for the NASA Ames wind tunnels. Here the system will be used to schedule wind tunnel tests with the goal of minimizing power costs. In this paper, we describe the GERRY system and its application to the Space Shuttle problem. We also speculate as to how the system would be used for manufacturing, transportation, and military problems.

SPANR (Schedule, Plan, Assess Networked Resources) is (i) a pre-run, off-line planning and (ii) a runtime, just-in-time scheduling mechanism. It is designed to support primarily commercial applications in that it optimizes throughput rather than individual jobs (unless they have highest priority). Thus it is a tool for a commercial production manager to maximize total work. First the SPANR Planner is presented showing the ability to do predictive 'what-if' planning. It can answer such questions as, (i) what is the overall effect of acquiring new hardware or (ii) what would be the effect of a different scheduler. The ability of the SPANR Planner to formulate in advance tree-trimming strategies is useful in several commercial applications, such as electronic design or pharmaceutical simulations. The SPANR Planner is demonstrated using a variety of benchmarks. The SPANR Runtime Scheduler (RS) is briefly presented. The SPANR RS can provide benefit for several commercial applications, such as airframe design and financial applications. Finally a design is shown whereby SPANR can provide scheduling advice to most resource management systems.

The GERRY scheduling system developed by NASA Ames with assistance from the Lockheed Space Operations Company, and the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, uses a method called constraint based iterative repair. Using this technique, one encodes both hard rules and preference criteria into data structures called constraints. GERRY repeatedly attempts to improve schedules by seeking repairs for violated constraints. The system provides a general scheduling framework which is being tested on two NASA applications. The larger of the two is the Space Shuttle Ground Processing problem which entails the scheduling of all inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks required to prepare the orbiter for flight. The other application involves power allocations for the NASA Ames wind tunnels. Here the system will be used to schedule wind tunnel tests with the goal of minimizing power costs. In this paper, we describe the GERRY system and its applications to the Space Shuttle problem. We also speculate as to how the system would be used for manufacturing, transportation, and military problems.

Artificial-intelligence software that automates scheduling developed in Operations Mission Planner (OMP) research project. Software used in both generation of new schedules and modification of existing schedules in view of changes in tasks and/or available resources. Approach based on iterative refinement. Although project focused upon scheduling of operations of scientific instruments and other equipment aboard spacecraft, also applicable to such terrestrial problems as scheduling production in factory.

In many domains, scheduling a sequence of jobs is an important function contributing to the overall efficiency of the operation. At Boeing, we develop schedules for many different domains, including assembly of military and commercial aircraft, weapons systems, and space vehicles. Boeing is under contract to develop scheduling systems for the Space Station Payload Planning System (PPS) and Payload Operations and Integration Center (POIC). These applications require that we respect certain sequencing restrictions among the jobs to be scheduled while at the same time assigning resources to the jobs. We call this general problem scheduling and resource allocation. Genetic algorithms (GA's) offer a search method that uses a population of solutions and benefits from intrinsic parallelism to search the problem space rapidly, producing near-optimal solutions. Good intermediate solutions are probabalistically recombined to produce better offspring (based upon some application specific measure of solution fitness, e.g., minimum flowtime, or schedule completeness). Also, at any point in the search, any intermediate solution can be accepted as a final solution; allowing the search to proceed longer usually produces a better solution while terminating the search at virtually any time may yield an acceptable solution. Many processes are constrained by restrictions of sequence among the individual jobs. For a specific job, other jobs must be completed beforehand. While there are obviously many other constraints on processes, it is these on which we focussed for this research: how to allocate crews to jobs while satisfying job precedence requirements and personnel, and tooling and fixture (or, more generally, resource) requirements.

The new schedule for Space Shuttle missions and expendable launch vehicles (ELV's) calls for a 7-month delay in sending up the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA was forced to put off launching the telescope until February 1990 to keep the Magellan and Galileo missions within their narrow launch windows. The first post-Challenger shuttle launch is now scheduled for late this month. Discovery's most recent delays were due to a hydrogen leak discovered July 29 that has still not been corrected and an engine valve malfunction during an August 4 test fire.

The Supply Chain Integrated Ordering Network (SCION) Depot Bookings system automates the planning and scheduling of perishable and non-perishable commodities and the vehicles that carry them into J. Sainsbury depots. This is a strategic initiative, enabling the business to make the key move from weekly to daily ordering. The system is mission critical, managing the inwards flow of commodities from suppliers into J. Sainsbury`s depots. The system leverages Al techniques to provide a business solution that meets challenging functional and performance needs. The SCION Depot Bookings system is operational providing schedules for 22 depots across the UK.

Purpose In low–tumor burden follicular lymphoma (FL), maintenance rituximab (MR) has been shown to improve progression-free survival when compared with observation. It is not known whether MR provides superior long-term disease control compared with re-treatment rituximab (RR) administered on an as-needed basis. E4402 (RESORT) was a randomized clinical trial designed to compare MR against RR. Patients and Methods Eligible patients with previously untreated low–tumor burden FL received four doses of rituximab, and responding patients were randomly assigned to either RR or MR. Patients receiving RR were eligible for re-treatment at each disease progression until treatment failure. Patients assigned to MR received a single dose of rituximab every 3 months until treatment failure. The primary end point was time to treatment failure. Secondary end points included time to first cytotoxic therapy, toxicity, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Results A total of 289 patients were randomly assigned to RR or MR. With a median follow-up of 4.5 years, the estimated median time to treatment failure was 3.9 years for patients receiving RR and 4.3 years for those receiving MR (P = .54). Three-year freedom from cytotoxic therapy was 84% for those receiving RR and 95% for those receiving MR (P = .03). The median number of rituximab doses was four patients receiving RR and 18 for those receiving MR. There was no difference in HRQOL. Grade 3 to 4 toxicities were infrequent in both arms. Conclusion In low–tumor burden FL, a re-treatment strategy uses less rituximab while providing disease control comparable to that achieved with a maintenance strategy. PMID:25154829

In the next years, processor architectures based on much larger numbers of cores will be most likely the model to continue 'Moore's Law' style throughput gains. This not only results in many more jobs in parallel running the LHC Run 1 era monolithic applications, but also the memory requirements of these processes push the workernode architectures to the limit. One solution is parallelizing the application itself, through forking and memory sharing or through threaded frameworks. CMS is following all of these approaches and has a comprehensive strategy to schedule multicore jobs on the GRID based on the glideinWMS submission infrastructure. The main component of the scheduling strategy, a pilot-based model with dynamic partitioning of resources that allows the transition to multicore or whole-node scheduling without disallowing the use of single-core jobs, is described. This contribution also presents the experiences made with the proposed multicore scheduling schema and gives an outlook of further developments working towards the restart of the LHC in 2015.

In the next years, processor architectures based on much larger numbers of cores will be most likely the model to continue "Moore's Law" style throughput gains. This not only results in many more jobs in parallel running the LHC Run 1 era monolithic applications, but also the memory requirements of these processes push the workernode architectures to the limit. One solution is parallelizing the application itself, through forking and memory sharing or through threaded frameworks. CMS is following all of these approaches and has a comprehensive strategy to schedule multicore jobs on the GRID based on the glideinWMS submission infrastructure. The main component of the scheduling strategy, a pilot-based model with dynamic partitioning of resources that allows the transition to multicore or whole-node scheduling without disallowing the use of single-core jobs, is described. This contribution also presents the experiences made with the proposed multicore scheduling schema and gives an outlook of further developments working towards the restart of the LHC in 2015.

Many creative or flexible work scheduling options are becoming available to the many working parents, students, handicapped persons, elderly individuals, and others who are either unable or unwilling to work a customary 40-hour work week. These options may be broadly categorized as either restructured or reduced work time options. The three main…

This 116-item interview schedule designed for parents who failed to respond to the Questionnaire for Parents, is individually administered to the mother of the child of elementary school age. It consists of scales measuring 14 parent variables plus a section devoted to demographic variables: (1) parent's achievement aspirations for the child, (2)…

The phenomena of the induction and entrainment of adjunctive behaviors was investigated in 8 people (ages 5-51) with severe or profound mental retardation who exhibited stereotypic behaviors. Seven of the eight demonstrated evidence of schedule-induced stereotypic behavior, whereas five also showed evidence of the entrainment of these behaviors by…

With rising interest in the role of treatment integrity on student outcomes, research has primarily focused on isolating the techniques and procedures necessary to improve staff's acquisition and maintenance of adequate levels of integrity. Despite increasing numbers of publications on this topic, there has been little discussion of the variables…

Three experiments were carried out to evaluate induction in ewes of superovulation and embryo production by a single injection of a porcine pituitary extract (pFSH) dissolved in polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), investigating the effects of PVP molecular weight and its concentration (Experiment I), time and method of treatment (Experiments II and III). All ewes were synchronized for estrus by vaginal sponges impregnated with fluorogestone acetate (FGA; 30 mg, 9 days) plus PGF(2alpha) (Cloprostenol, 50 microg, 48h before sponge removal - s.r.), and superovulated by 250 IU pFSH. In Experiment I, 60 Gentile di Puglia ewes were subdivided into five experimental groups (n = 12): Group A, the control, received six decreasing intramuscular (i.m.) doses of pFSH, 12 h apart, beginning 48h before s.r.; Groups B and C were given 48 h before s.r. a single i.m. injection of pFSH dissolved in PVP with MW = 10,000, respectively, at concentrations of 15 and 30% w/v; Groups D and E received the same treatments as for B and C using PVP with MW = 40,000. None of the pFSH-PVP treatments were effective in inducing superovulation. In Experiment II, 22 Leccese ewes were subdivided into two groups (n = 11): Group A, control received i.m. four decreasing doses of pFSH, beginning 24 h before s.r., 12h apart; Group B was given a single i.m. injection of pFSH dissolved in PVP (MW = 40,000 at 30% w/v), 24 h before s.r. The pFSH-PVP treatment provided an ovulation rate similar to the control and tended to enhance embryo yield (4.4 versus 2.4, P>0.05). In Experiment III, 60 Leccese ewes were subdivided into six treatment groups (n = 10). Groups A and D served as controls and received i.m. 12 h apart, six doses (from 48 h before s.r.) and four doses (from 24h before s.r.) of pFSH, respectively. Groups B and C were treated by a single injection of pFSH in PVP (MW = 10,000; 30% w/v) 48 h before s.r., respectively by i.m. or subcutaneous (s.c.) administration. Groups E and F received the same treatments

The planning problem has traditionally been treated separately from the scheduling problem. However, as more realistic domains are tackled, it becomes evident that the problem of deciding on an ordered set of tasks to achieve a set of goals cannot be treated independently of the problem of actually allocating resources to the tasks. Doing so would result in losing the robustness and flexibility needed to deal with imperfectly modeled domains. Completable scheduling is an approach which integrates the two problems by allowing an a priori planning module to defer particular planning decisions, and consequently the associated scheduling decisions, until execution time. This allows a completable scheduling system to maximize plan flexibility by allowing runtime information to be taken into consideration when making planning and scheduling decision. Furthermore, through the criteria of achievability placed on deferred decision, a completable scheduling system is able to retain much of the goal-directedness and guarantees of achievement afforded by a priori planning. The completable scheduling approach is further enhanced by the use of contingent explanation-based learning, which enables a completable scheduling system to learn general completable plans from example and improve its performance through experience. Initial experimental results show that completable scheduling outperforms classical scheduling as well as pure reactive scheduling in a simple scheduling domain.

Scheduling techniques in the ROSE are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: agenda; ROSE summary and history; NCC-ROSE task goals; accomplishments; ROSE timeline manager; scheduling concerns; current and ROSE approaches; initial scheduling; BFSSE overview and example; and summary.

The modeling of constraints is an important issue in power system scheduling. Constraints can be generally classified into two categories: (1) physical limits and (2) operating limits. A schedule violating physical limit or constraint would not be acceptable. An operating limit, however, is often imposed to enhance system security but does not represent a physical bound. This kind of soft limits can be temporarily violated a little bit if necessary, but not too much. These constraints are therefore fuzzy in nature, and crisp treatment of them may lead to over conservative solutions. In this paper, a fuzzy optimization-based method is developed to solve power system scheduling problem with fuzzy reserve requirements. The problem is first converted to a crisp and separable optimization problem. Lagrange multipliers are then used to relax system-wide constraints and decompose the problem into a number of unit-wise subproblems and a membership subproblem. These subproblems can be efficiently solved, and the multipliers are updated by using a subgradient method. Heuristics are then used to construct a feasible schedule based on subproblem solutions. Numerical testing results show that near optimal schedules are obtained, and the method can provide a good balance between reducing costs and satisfying reserve requirements.

The applicability of constraint-based scheduling, a methodology previously developed and validated in the domain of factory scheduling, is extended to problem domains that require attendance to a wider range of state-dependent constraints. The problem of constructing and maintaining a short-term observation schedule for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which typifies this type of domain is the focus of interest. The nature of the constraints encountered in the HST domain is examined, system requirements are discussed with respect to utilization of a constraint-based scheduling methodology in such domains, and a general framework for state-based scheduling is presented.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a record-setting launch schedule for 1984—10 space shuttle flights (see Table 1), 10 satellite deployments from the space shuttle in orbit and 12 unmanned missions using expendable launch vehicles. Also scheduled is the launch on March 1 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of Landsat D‧, the nation's second earth resources satellite.The launch activity will begin February 3 with the launch of shuttle mission 41-B using the orbiter Challenger. Two communications satellites will be deployed from 41-B: Westar-VI, for Western Union, and Palapa B-2 for the government of Indonesia. The 8-day mission will feature the first shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and the first flight of the Manned Maneuvering Unit, a self-contained, propulsive backpack that will allow astronauts to move about in space without being tethered to the spacecraft.

Software has been designed to schedule remote sensing with the Earth Observing One spacecraft. The software attempts to satisfy as many observation requests as possible considering each against spacecraft operation constraints such as data volume, thermal, pointing maneuvers, and others. More complex constraints such as temperature are approximated to enable efficient reasoning while keeping the spacecraft within safe limits. Other constraints are checked using an external software library. For example, an attitude control library is used to determine the feasibility of maneuvering between pairs of observations. This innovation can deal with a wide range of spacecraft constraints and solve large scale scheduling problems like hundreds of observations and thousands of combinations of observation sequences.

conflict-aware scheduling algorithm is being developed to help automate the allocation of NASA s Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas and equipment that are used to communicate with interplanetary scientific spacecraft. The current approach for scheduling DSN ground resources seeks to provide an equitable distribution of tracking services among the multiple scientific missions and is very labor intensive. Due to the large (and increasing) number of mission requests for DSN services, combined with technical and geometric constraints, the DSN is highly oversubscribed. To help automate the process, and reduce the DSN and spaceflight project labor effort required for initiating, maintaining, and negotiating schedules, a new scheduling algorithm is being developed. The scheduling algorithm generates a "conflict-aware" schedule, where all requests are scheduled based on a dynamic priority scheme. The conflict-aware scheduling algorithm allocates all requests for DSN tracking services while identifying and maintaining the conflicts to facilitate collaboration and negotiation between spaceflight missions. These contrast with traditional "conflict-free" scheduling algorithms that assign tracks that are not in conflict and mark the remainder as unscheduled. In the case where full schedule automation is desired (based on mission/event priorities, fairness, allocation rules, geometric constraints, and ground system capabilities/ constraints), a conflict-free schedule can easily be created from the conflict-aware schedule by removing lower priority items that are in conflict.

Flexible modular scheduling (flex mod)--a schedule philosophy and system that has been in place at Wausau West High School in Wausau, Wisconsin, for the last 35 years and aligns nicely with current research on student learning--is getting more and more attention from high school administrators across the country. Flexible modular scheduling was…

Citing literature that supports the benefits of flexible scheduling on student achievement, the author exhorts readers to campaign for flexible scheduling in their library media centers. She suggests tips drawn from the work of Graziano (2002), McGregor (2006) and Stripling (1997) for making a smooth transition from fixed to flexible scheduling:…

One of the most challenging tasks a principal must accomplish every year is the construction of the master schedule. Free from the magnetic scheduling boards and wall charts of yesteryear, principals now have technological tools--such as programs that offer schools solutions for their scheduling needs--that can save time and enable them to work…

The Schedule Organizer SO, Schedule Tracker, ST (COSMIC Program MSC-21526), and Report Generator, SRG (COSMIC Program MSC-21527), are programs that manipulate data base files in ways that are advantageous to scheduling applications. Originally designed for the Space Shuttle flight schedule, the program can be easily modified for other scheduling situations. Schedule Organizer provides a simple method for generating distribution lists. These distribution lists contain readers' names for each task schedule defined by the input files. Schedule Tracker provides an effective method for tracking tasks that are 'past due' and/or 'near term'. ST generates reports for each responsible staff member with one or more assigned tasks that fall within the two listed categories. This enables an engineering manager to monitor tasks assigned to staff by running ST on a weekly basis. ST only lists tasks on reports that have become past due or are scheduled for recent completion (near term). Schedule Report Generator provides a simple method for generating periodic schedule reports. SO contains the following primary menu that is displayed at the beginning of the program. The menu provides options: to write input files to an output distribution file, to change a schedule title field and/or distribution list field, to browse through the schedule and input names file for requested schedule numbers, to create an input names file and a schedule titles file, and to delete input schedule titles and associated names. SO provides a choice of two input files. One file holds twenty-five groups of up to twenty-five names for each group. The other file holds twenty-five records, each of which may hold a task schedule title. SO creates three output files. One holds the formatted list of schedule titles for printout. Another file holds the formatted distribution list for printout; there is one for each input names file schedule group. The third output file holds the last schedule title deleted by

Most scheduling problems are NP-hard, the time required to solve the problem optimally increases exponentially with the size of the problem. Scheduling problems have important applications, and a number of heuristic algorithms have been proposed to determine relatively good solutions in polynomial time. Recently, genetic algorithms (GA) are successfully used to solve scheduling problems, as shown by the growing numbers of papers. GA are known as one of the most efficient algorithms for solving scheduling problems. But, when a GA is applied to scheduling problems various crossovers and mutations operators can be applicable. This paper presents and examines a new concept of genetic operators for scheduling problems. A software tool called hybrid and flexible genetic algorithm (HybFlexGA) was developed to examine the performance of various crossover and mutation operators by computing simulations of job scheduling problems.

The Platform Management System was established to coordinate the operation of platform systems and instruments. The management functions are split between ground and space components. Since platforms are to be out of contact with the ground more than the manned base, the on-board functions are required to be more autonomous than those of the manned base. Under this concept, automated replanning and rescheduling, including on-board real-time schedule maintenance and schedule repair, are required to effectively and efficiently meet Space Station Freedom mission goals. In a FY88 study, we developed several promising alternatives for automated platform planning and scheduling. We recommended both a specific alternative and a phased approach to automated platform resource scheduling. Our recommended alternative was based upon use of exactly the same scheduling engine in both ground and space components of the platform management system. Our phased approach recommendation was based upon evolutionary development of the platform. In the past year, we developed platform scheduler requirements and implemented a rapid prototype of a baseline platform scheduler. Presently we are rehosting this platform scheduler rapid prototype and integrating the scheduler prototype into two Goddard Space Flight Center testbeds, as the ground scheduler in the Scheduling Concepts, Architectures, and Networks Testbed and as the on-board scheduler in the Platform Management System Testbed. Using these testbeds, we will investigate rescheduling issues, evaluate operational performance and enhance the platform scheduler prototype to demonstrate our evolutionary approach to automated platform scheduling. The work described in this paper was performed prior to Space Station Freedom rephasing, transfer of platform responsibility to Code E, and other recently discussed changes. We neither speculate on these changes nor attempt to predict the impact of the final decisions. As a consequence some of our

Analysis is presented of a prospective randomized study involving 365 patients with histologically proven unresectable non-oat-cell carcinoma of the lung treated with deffinitive radiotherapy. The patients were radomized to one of four treatment regimens: 4000 rad split course, or 4000, 5000, or 6000-rad continuous courses in five fractions per week. Ninety to 100 patients were accessioned to each group. The one-year survival rate is 50% and the two-year survival rate, 25%. The patients treated with the split course have the lowest survival rate in comparison with the other groups. The complete and partial local regression of tumor was 49% in patients treated with 4000 rad and 55% in the groups treated with 5000 and 6000 rad. For patients who achieved complete regression of the tumor following irradiation, the two-year survival rate is 40%, in contrast to 20% for those with partial regression, and no survivors among the patients with stable or progressive disease. The incidence of intrathoracic recurrence was 33% for patients treated with 6000 rad, 39% for those receiving 5000 rad, and 44 to 49% for those treated with a 4000-rad split or continuous course. At present, the data stongly suggest that patients treated with 5000 or 6000 rad have a better response, tumor control, and survival rate than those receiving lower doses. Patients with high performance status or with tumors in earlier stages have a two-year survival rate of approx. 40%, in comparison with 20% for other patients. The various irradiation regimens have been well tolerated, with complications being slightly higher in the 4000-rad split course group and in the 6000-rad continuous course group. The most frequent complications have been pneumonitis, pulmonary fibrosis, and dyspagia due to transient esophagitis. Further investigation will be necessary before the optimal management of patients with bronchogenic carcinoma by irradiation is established.

... 21, 2011 (76 FR 65424), which proposed placement of ezogabine into Schedule V of the CSA. The... commenter stated that ezogabine may help those who have not had success with current epilepsy treatments.... Comment: The second comment stated that because epilepsy is a serious and potentially...

This schedule is available for the contract purchase of Firm Power to be used within the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Priority Firm (PF) Power may be purchased by public bodies, cooperatives, and Federal agencies for resale to ultimate consumers, for direct consumption, and for Construction, Test and Start-Up, and Station Service. Rates in this schedule are in effect beginning October 1, 2006, and apply to purchases under requirements Firm Power sales contracts for a three-year period. The Slice Product is only available for public bodies and cooperatives who have signed Slice contracts for the FY 2002-2011 period. Utilities participating in the Residential Exchange Program (REP) under Section 5(c) of the Northwest Power Act may purchase Priority Firm Power pursuant to the Residential Exchange Program. Rates under contracts that contain charges that escalate based on BPA's Priority Firm Power rates shall be based on the three-year rates listed in this rate schedule in addition to applicable transmission charges. This rate schedule supersedes the PF-02 rate schedule, which went into effect October 1, 2001. Sales under the PF-07 rate schedule are subject to BPA's 2007 General Rate Schedule Provisions (2007 GRSPs). Products available under this rate schedule are defined in the 2007 GRSPs. For sales under this rate schedule, bills shall be rendered and payments due pursuant to BPA's 2007 GRSPs and billing process.

Schedule-induced polydipsia was studied in rats bar pressing under two-component multiple schedules of food reinforcement. The first component of the multiple schedule was a variable-interval 1-min schedule throughout the experiment. The schedule comprising the second component was varied over blocks of sessions in terms of rate and magnitude of reinforcement, and was either variable-interval 3-min (one pellet), variable-interval 3-min (three pellets), variable-interval 1-min (one pellet), or extinction. Water intake per session varied with the rate of reinforcement in the schedule comprising the second component and was highest when the schedule was variable-interval 1-min. Both bar-pressing behavior and licking behavior showed behavioral interactions between the two components of the multiple schedules. With magnitude of reinforcement held constant, a matching relationship was observed between lick rate and reinforcement rate; the relative frequency of licks in the constant component matched the relative frequency of reinforcement in that component. Bar pressing, however, showed only a moderate degree of relativity matching. During the schedule-induced licking, a burst of licking followed each delivery of a pellet (post-prandial drinking). The duration of these bursts of licking was observed to be a function of the inter-reinforcement interval. PMID:16811598

DTS is a decision-theoretic scheduler, built on top of a flexible toolkit -- this paper focuses on how the toolkit might be reused in future NASA mission schedulers. The toolkit includes a user-customizable scheduling interface, and a 'Just-For-You' optimization engine. The customizable interface is built on two metaphors: objects and dynamic graphs. Objects help to structure problem specifications and related data, while dynamic graphs simplify the specification of graphical schedule editors (such as Gantt charts). The interface can be used with any 'back-end' scheduler, through dynamically-loaded code, interprocess communication, or a shared database. The 'Just-For-You' optimization engine includes user-specific utility functions, automatically compiled heuristic evaluations, and a postprocessing facility for enforcing scheduling policies. The optimization engine is based on BPS, the Bayesian Problem-Solver (1,2), which introduced a similar approach to solving single-agent and adversarial graph search problems.

Bonneville Power Administration 1993 Wholesale Power Rate Schedules and General Rate Schedule Provisions and 1993 Transmission Rate Schedules and General Transmission Rate Schedule Provisions, contained herein, were approved on an interim basis effective October 1, 1993. These rate schedules and provisions were approved by the Federal Energy Commission, United States Department of Energy, in September, 1993. These rate schedules and provisions supersede the Administration`s Wholesale Power Rate Schedules and General Rate Schedule Provisions and Transmission Rate Schedules and General Transmission Rate Schedule Provisions effective October 1, 1991.

The Schedule Organizer, SO (COSMIC Program MSC-21525), Schedule Tracker, ST, and Schedule Report Generator, SRG (COSMIC Program MSC-21527), are programs that manipulate data base files in ways that are advantageous to scheduling applications. Originally designed for the Space Shuttle flight schedule, the program can be easily modified for other scheduling situations. Schedule Organizer provides a simple method for generating distribution lists. These distribution lists contain readers' names for each task schedule defined by the input files. Schedule Tracker provides an effective method for tracking tasks that are 'past due' and/or 'near term'. ST generates reports for each responsible staff member with one or more assigned tasks that fall within the two listed categories. This enables an engineering manager to monitor tasks assigned to staff by running ST on a weekly basis. ST only lists tasks on reports that have become past due or are scheduled for recent completion (near term). Schedule Report Generator provides a simple method for generating periodic schedule reports. ST and SRG use the same data base file as input. The common data base file has a maximum number of 400 entries. The time span of all three programs is nineteen months. Both of these maximum numbers can be modified by the user. ST requires the VMS Operating System on DEC VAX and was written in PL/1 and DEC Command Language (DCL). The program requires a memory of 233KB. ST can be purchased separately or in a package (COSMIC Program COS-10021) containing SO, ST, and SRG. ST was developed in 1985.

Metastasis is the process by which cells from a primary tumor disperse and form new tumors at distant anatomical locations. The treatment and prevention of metastatic cancer remains an extremely challenging problem. This work introduces a novel biologically motivated objective function to the radiation optimization community that takes into account metastatic risk instead of the status of the primary tumor. In this work, we consider the problem of developing fractionated irradiation schedules that minimize production of metastatic cancer cells while keeping normal tissue damage below an acceptable level. A dynamic programming framework is utilized to determine the optimal fractionation scheme. We evaluated our approach on a breast cancer case using the heart and the lung as organs-at-risk (OAR). For small tumor α /β values, hypo-fractionated schedules were optimal, which is consistent with standard models. However, for relatively larger α /β values, we found the type of schedule depended on various parameters such as the time when metastatic risk was evaluated, the α /β values of the OARs, and the normal tissue sparing factors. Interestingly, in contrast to standard models, hypo-fractionated and semi-hypo-fractionated schedules (large initial doses with doses tapering off with time) were suggested even with large tumor α/β values. Numerical results indicate the potential for significant reduction in metastatic risk.

Connection Management plays a key role in both distributed 'local' network-centric and 'globally' connected info- centric systems. The role of Connection Management is to provide seamless demand-based sharing of the information products. For optimum distributed information fusion performance, these systems must minimize communications delays and maximize message throughput, and at the same time take into account relative-sensors-targets geometrical constraints and data pedigree. In order to achieve overall distributed 'network' effectiveness, these systems must be adaptive, and be able to distribute data s needed in real- time. A system concept will be described which provides optimum capacity-based information scheduling. A specific example, based on a satellite channel, is used to illustrate simulated performance results and their effects on fusion systems performance.

We describe a scheduling system intended to assist in the development of instrument data acquisitions for the THEMIS instrument, onboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, and compare results from multiple scheduling algorithms. This tool creates observations of both (a) targeted geographical regions of interest and (b) general mapping observations, while respecting spacecraft constraints such as data volume, observation timing, visibility, lighting, season, and science priorities. This tool therefore must address both geometric and state/timing/resource constraints. We describe a tool that maps geometric polygon overlap constraints to set covering constraints using a grid-based approach. These set covering constraints are then incorporated into a greedy optimization scheduling algorithm incorporating operations constraints to generate feasible schedules. The resultant tool generates schedules of hundreds of observations per week out of potential thousands of observations. This tool is currently under evaluation by the THEMIS observation planning team at Arizona State University.

This report documents the results of a project to evaluate low cost modeling and simulation tools when applied to modeling the Cray memory scheduler. The specific tool used is described and the basics of the memory scheduler are covered. Results of simulations using the model are discussed and a favorable recommendation is made to make more use of this inexpensive technology.

Flexible work schedules are one response to changes in the composition of the work force, new life-styles, and changes in work attitudes. Types of alternative work schedules are part-time and temporary employment, job sharing, and flextime. Part-time workers are a diverse group--women, the very young, and older near-retirees. Although part-time…

Currently, few web-based irrigation scheduling tools are available for the humid growing environments of the Mid-South. Common irrigation scheduling systems rely on soil or weather data to estimate crop water use, and are more commonly calibrated for dry growing environments. Increasing use of water...

AOSS is a highly efficient scheduling application that uses various tools to schedule astronauts weekly appointment information. This program represents an integration of many technologies into a single application to facilitate schedule sharing and management. It is a Windows-based application developed in Visual Basic. Because the NASA standard office automation load environment is Microsoft-based, Visual Basic provides AO SS developers with the ability to interact with Windows collaboration components by accessing objects models from applications like Outlook and Excel. This also gives developers the ability to create newly customizable components that perform specialized tasks pertaining to scheduling reporting inside the application. With this capability, AOSS can perform various asynchronous tasks, such as gathering/ sending/ managing astronauts schedule information directly to their Outlook calendars at any time.

Preparing a vehicle and its payload for a single launch is a complex process that involves thousands of operations. Because the equipment and facilities required to carry out these operations are extremely expensive and limited in number, optimal assignment and efficient use are critically important. Overlapping missions that compete for the same resources, ground rules, safety requirements, and the unique needs of processing vehicles and payloads destined for space impose numerous constraints that, when combined, require advanced scheduling. Traditional scheduling systems use simple algorithms and criteria when selecting activities and assigning resources and times to each activity. Schedules generated by these simple decision rules are, however, frequently far from optimal. To resolve mission-critical scheduling issues and predict possible problem areas, NASA historically relied upon expert human schedulers who used their judgment and experience to determine where things should happen, whether they will happen on time, and whether the requested resources are truly necessary.

Purpose: To investigate the influence of the bortezomib (BTZ) on malignant glioma radiosensitivity in two xenograft models. Methods and Materials: For TCG3 and U87 models, we evaluated the antitumor activity of BTZ, radiotherapy, and BTZ plus radiothearapy according to two therapeutic schedules: a 'nonfractionated' schedule corresponding to a single dose of treatment per week, and a 'fractionated' schedule corresponding to the same weekly dose divided into 5 fractions. Treatments influence on proliferation and apoptosis indexes, cell cycle distribution, and nuclear factor-{kappa}B pathway were explored. Results: The radiosensitizing properties of BTZ observed with the nonfractionated schedule were lost with the fractionated schedule. Bortezomib-mediated radiosensitization was associated with an increased apoptosis response and major changes in cell proliferation, but the nuclear factor-{kappa}B pathway was not involved. Most of the cellular effects induced by BTZ when tumors received a single irradiation were cancelled out if radiotherapy was fractionated. Conclusion: The influence of BTZ on glioma radiosensitivity seems to depend on the treatment fractionation schedule, emphasizing the need to clarify the mechanisms underlying BTZ's radiosensitizing effects before further clinical trials are initiated.

This research focuses on scheduling patients in emergency department laboratories according to the priority of patients' treatments, determined by the triage factor. The objective is to minimize the total waiting time of patients in the emergency department laboratories with emphasis on patients with severe conditions. The problem is formulated as a flexible open shop scheduling problem and a mixed integer linear programming model is proposed. A genetic algorithm (GA) is developed for solving the problem. Then, the response surface methodology is applied for tuning the GA parameters. The algorithm is tested on a set of real data from an emergency department. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the efficiency of the emergency department by reducing the total waiting time of prioritized patients. PMID:25214024

The “1999 National Transportation Program - Transportation Baseline Report” presents data that form a baseline to enable analysis and planning for future Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) waste/material transportation. The companion “1999 Transportation ‘Barriers’ Analysis” analyzes the data and identifies existing and potential problems that may prevent or delay transportation activities based on the data presented. The “1999 Transportation Baseline Schedule” (this report) uses the same data to provide an overview of the transportation activities of DOE EM waste/materials. This report can be used to identify areas where stakeholder interface is needed, and to communicate to stakeholders the quantity/schedule of shipments going through their area. Potential bottlenecks in the transportation system can be identified; the number of packages needed, and the capacity needed at receiving facilities can be planned. This report offers a visualization of baseline DOE EM transportation activities for the 11 major sites and the “Geologic Repository Disposal” site (GRD).

The Autonomous Power System (APS) project at NASA Lewis Research Center is designed to demonstrate the abilities of integrated intelligent diagnosis, control and scheduling techniques to space power distribution hardware. The project consists of three elements: the Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) for fault diagnosis, isolation, and recovery (FDIR), the Autonomous Intelligent Power Scheduler (AIPS) to determine system configuration, and power hardware (Brassboard) to simulate a space-based power system. Faults can be introduced into the Brassboard and in turn, be diagnosed and corrected by APEX and AIPS. The Autonomous Intelligent Power Scheduler controls the execution of loads attached to the Brassboard. Each load must be executed in a manner that efficiently utilizes available power and satisfies all load, resource, and temporal constraints. In the case of a fault situation on the Brassboard, AIPS dynamically modifies the existing schedule in order to resume efficient operation conditions. A database is kept of the power demand, temporal modifiers, priority of each load, and the power level of each source. AIPS uses a set of heuristic rules to assign start times and resources to each load based on load and resource constraints. A simple improvement engine based upon these heuristics is also available to improve the schedule efficiency. This paper describes the operation of the Autonomous Intelligent Power Scheduler as a single entity, as well as its integration with APEX and the Brassboard. Future plans are discussed for the growth of the Autonomous Intelligent Power Scheduler.

... ACIP Vaccination Recommendations Why Immunize? Vaccines: The Basics Immunization Schedules for Infants and Children Recommend on Facebook ... any questions. View or Print a Schedule Recommended Immunizations for Children (Birth through 6 years) Schedule for ...

Program development on parallel machines can be a nightmare of scheduling headaches. We have developed a portable time sharing mechanism to handle the problem of scheduling gangs of processes. User programs and their gangs of processes are put to sleep and awakened by the gang scheduler to provide a time sharing environment. Time quantum are adjusted according to priority queues and a system of fair share accounting. The initial platform for this software is the 128 processor BBN TC2000 in use in the Massively Parallel Computing Initiative at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Program development on parallel machines can be a nightmare of scheduling headaches. We have developed a portable time sharing mechanism to handle the problem of scheduling gangs of processors. User program and their gangs of processors are put to sleep and awakened by the gang scheduler to provide a time sharing environment. Time quantums are adjusted according to priority queues and a system of fair share accounting. The initial platform for this software is the 128 processor BBN TC2000 in use in the Massively Parallel Computing Initiative at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 2 refs., 1 fig.

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS Tennessee § 1952.221 Developmental schedule. The Tennessee state plan is developmental. The following is the developmental schedule...

Cancer treatment facilities can improve their efficiency for radiation therapy by optimizing the utilization of the linear accelerators (linacs). We propose a method to schedule patients on such machines taking into account their priority for treatment, the maximum waiting time before the first treatment, the treatment duration, and the preparation of this treatment (dosimetry). At each arrival of a patient, the future workloads of the linacs and the dosimetry are inferred. We propose a genetic algorithm, which schedules future tasks in dosimetry and a constraint programming formulation to verify the feasibility of a planning of dosimetry. This approach ensures the beginning of the treatment on time and thus avoids the cancellation of treatment sessions on linacs. Preliminary results indicate the improvements of this new procedure.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was launched on August 25, 2003 from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. Drifting in a unique Earth-trailing orbit around the Sun, Spitzer sees an optically invisible universe dominated by dust and stars. Since 1997, the Spitzer Integrated Resource Planning and Scheduling System (SIRPASS) has helped produce spacecraft activity plans for the Spitzer Space Telescope. SIRPASS is used by members of the Observatory Planning and Scheduling Team to plan, schedule and sequence the Telescope from data made available to them from the science and engineering community. Because of the volume of data that needs to be scheduled, SIRPASS offers a variety of automated assistants to aid in this task. This paper will describe the functional elements of the SIRPASS software system -- emphasizing the role that automation plays in the system -- and will highlight lessons learned for the software developer from a decade of Spitzer Space Telescope operations experience.

Because of the importance of air transportation scheduling, the emergence of small aircraft and the vision of future fuel-efficient aircraft, this thesis has focused on the study of aircraft scheduling and network design involving multiple types of aircraft and flight services. It develops models and solution algorithms for the schedule design problem and analyzes the computational results. First, based on the current development of small aircraft and on-demand flight services, this thesis expands a business model for integrating on-demand flight services with the traditional scheduled flight services. This thesis proposes a three-step approach to the design of aircraft schedules and networks from scratch under the model. In the first step, both a frequency assignment model for scheduled flights that incorporates a passenger path choice model and a frequency assignment model for on-demand flights that incorporates a passenger mode choice model are created. In the second step, a rough fleet assignment model that determines a set of flight legs, each of which is assigned an aircraft type and a rough departure time is constructed. In the third step, a timetable model that determines an exact departure time for each flight leg is developed. Based on the models proposed in the three steps, this thesis creates schedule design instances that involve almost all the major airports and markets in the United States. The instances of the frequency assignment model created in this thesis are large-scale non-convex mixed-integer programming problems, and this dissertation develops an overall network structure and proposes iterative algorithms for solving these instances. The instances of both the rough fleet assignment model and the timetable model created in this thesis are large-scale mixed-integer programming problems, and this dissertation develops subproblem schemes for solving these instances. Based on these solution algorithms, this dissertation also presents

Planning and scheduling programs are excellent management tools when properly introduced to the project management team and regularly maintained. Communications, creativity, flexibility and accuracy are substantially improved by following a simple set of rules. A planning and scheduling program will work for you if you believe in it, make others in your project team realize its benefits, and make it an extension of your project cost control philosophy.

In a scheduling game, each player owns a job and chooses a machine to execute it. While the social cost is the maximal load over all machines (makespan), the cost (disutility) of each player is the completion time of its own job. In the game, players may follow selfish strategies to optimize their cost and therefore their behaviors do not necessarily lead the game to an equilibrium. Even in the case there is an equilibrium, its makespan might be much larger than the social optimum, and this inefficiency is measured by the price of anarchy - the worst ratio between the makespan of an equilibrium and the optimum. Coordination mechanisms aim to reduce the price of anarchy by designing scheduling policies that specify how jobs assigned to a same machine are to be scheduled. Typically these policies define the schedule according to the processing times as announced by the jobs. One could wonder if there are policies that do not require this knowledge, and still provide a good price of anarchy. This would make the processing times be private information and avoid the problem of truthfulness. In this paper we study these so-called non-clairvoyant policies. In particular, we study the RANDOM policy that schedules the jobs in a random order without preemption, and the EQUI policy that schedules the jobs in parallel using time-multiplexing, assigning each job an equal fraction of CPU time.

This final rule is issued by the Deputy Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reschedule buprenorphine from a Schedule V narcotic to a Schedule III narcotic under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This action is based on a rescheduling recommendation by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and a DEA review indicating that buprenorphine meets the criteria of a Schedule III narcotic. The DEA published a proposed rule to reschedule buprenorphine on March 21, 2002 (67 FR 13114). The comment period was extended for an additional 30 days until May 22, 2002 (67 FR 20072). The DEA received ten comments but no requests for hearings. This final action will impose the regulatory controls and criminal sanctions of a Schedule III narcotic on those persons who handle buprenorphine or products containing buprenorphine PMID:12369590

Describes 4 X 4 block scheduling and its advantages and disadvantages. Examines block scheduling's effects on a Virginia high school's students, teachers, and administration, based on school data and survey results. Most participants preferred block scheduling over the six-period schedule. Grades, attendance, and discipline improved; students…

Three flexible scheduling plans were tried in order that firefighters could take regular college courses despite their 24 hours on the 24 off work schedule. Plan one scheduled the firefighters into a regular Monday-Wednesday-Friday class which they attended every other week, making up missed material outside of class. Plan two scheduled special…

Documents Virginia's history of adoption and implementation of block scheduling, highlights common forms of block scheduling, and describes mistakes that caused schools to abandon block scheduling. Describes three key variables (time, teachers, and students) in the use of block scheduling to improve student achievement. (PKP)

Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the US Department of Energy (DOE). This document contains the planned schedule for routine sample collection for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) and Ground-Water Monitoring Project. The routine sampling plan for the SESP has been revised this year to reflect changing site operations and priorities. Some sampling previously performed at least annually has been reduced in frequency, and some new sampling to be performed at a less than annual frequency has been added. Therefore, the SESP schedule reflects sampling to be conducted in calendar year 1991 as well as future years. The ground-water sampling schedule is for 1991. This schedule is subject to modification during the year in response to changes in Site operation, program requirements, and the nature of the observed results. Operational limitations such as weather, mechanical failures, sample availability, etc., may also require schedule modifications. Changes will be documented in the respective project files, but this plan will not be reissued. The purpose of these monitoring projects is to evaluate levels of radioactive and nonradioactive pollutants in the Hanford evirons.

The Network Queueing System (NQS) was designed to schedule jobs based on limits within queues. As systems obtain more memory, the number of queues increased to take advantage of the added memory resource. The problem now becomes too many queues. Having a large number of queues provides users with the capability to gain an unfair advantage over other users by tailoring their job to fit in an empty queue. Additionally, the large number of queues becomes confusing to the user community. The High Speed Processors group at the Numerical Aerodynamics Simulation (NAS) Facility at NASA Ames Research Center developed a new approach to batch job scheduling. This new method reduces the number of queues required by eliminating the need for queues based on resource limits. The scheduler examines each request for necessary resources before initiating the job. Also additional user limits at the complex level were added to provide a fairness to all users. Additional tools which include user job reordering are under development to work with the new scheduler. This paper discusses the objectives, design and implementation results of this new scheduler

Automated scheduling will play an increasing role in future ground- and space-based observatory operations. Due to the complexity of the problem, artificial intelligence technology currently offers the greatest potential for the development of scheduling tools with sufficient power and flexibility to handle realistic scheduling situations. Summarized here are the main features of the observatory scheduling problem, how artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be applied, and recent progress in AI scheduling for Hubble Space Telescope.

A partitioned multiprocessor (PM) has a shared global bus and nonshared local memories. This paper studies a process scheduler, called the two-tier scheduler (TTS), for a PM. In a PM local scheduling amortizes the cost of loading processes in local memory. Global scheduling migrates processes to balance load. A tunable time quantum is adjusted so the average process completes execution on the processor on which it is first scheduled, and only relatively long lived processes are rescheduled globally.

Scheduling has become an increasingly important element in today's society and workplace. Within the NASA environment, scheduling is one of the most frequently performed and challenging functions. Towards meeting NASA's scheduling needs, a research version of a generic expert scheduling system architecture and toolkit has been developed. This final report describes the development and testing of GUESS (Generically Used Expert Scheduling System).

In the replacement scheduling problem, a system is composed of n processors drawn from a pool of p. The processors can become faulty while in operation and faulty processors never recover. A report is issued whenever a fault occurs. This report states only the existence of a fault but does not indicate its location. Based on this report, the scheduler can reconfigure the system and choose another set of n processors. The system operates satisfactorily as long as, upon report of a fault, the scheduler chooses n non-faulty processors. We provide a randomized protocol maximizing the expected number of faults the system can sustain before the occurrence of a crash. The optimality of the protocol is established by considering a closely related dual optimization problem. The game-theoretic technical difficulties that we solve in this paper are very general and encountered whenever proving the optimality of a randomized algorithm in parallel and distributed computation.

Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)(a) for the US Department of Energy (DOE). This document contains the planned 1997 schedules for routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) and Drinking Water Monitoring Project. In addition, Section 3.0, Biota, also reflects a rotating collection schedule identifying the year a specific sample is scheduled for collection. The purpose of these monitoring projects is to evaluate levels of radioactive and nonradioactive pollutants in the Hanford environs, as required in DOE Order 5400.1, General Environmental Protection Program, and DOE Order 5400.5, Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment. The sampling methods will be the same as those described in the Environmental Monitoring Plan, US Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, DOE/RL91-50, Rev. 1, US Department of Energy, Richland, Washington.

A lexicon related to mission planning and scheduling for spacecraft is presented. Planning and scheduling work is known as sequencing. Sequencing is a multistage process of merging requests from both the science and engineering arenas to accomplish the objectives defined in the requests. The multistage process begins with the creation of science and engineering goals, continues through their integration into the sequence, and eventually concludes with command execution onboard the spacecraft. The objective of this publication is to introduce some formalism into the field of spacecraft sequencing-system technology. This formalism will make it possible for researchers and potential customers to communicate about system requirements and capabilities in a common language.

Scheduling tasks onto the processors of a parallel system is a crucial part of program parallelization. Due to the NP-hardness of the task scheduling problem, scheduling algorithms are based on heuristics that try to produce good rather than optimal schedules. This paper proposes a Memetic algorithm with Tabu search and Simulated Annealing as local search for solving Task scheduling problem considering communication contention. This problem consists of finding a schedule for a general task graph to be executed on a cluster of workstations and hence the schedule length can be minimized. Our approach combines local search (by self experience) and global search (by neighboring experience) possessing high search efficiency. The proposed approach is compared with existing list scheduling heuristics. The numerical results clearly indicate that our proposed approach produces solutions which are closer to optimality and/or better quality than the existing list scheduling heuristics.

Bonneville Power Administration`s (BPA) 1996 Wholesale Power Rate Schedules, 1996 Ancillary Products and Services Rate Schedule, 1996 Transmission Rate Schedules, and General Rate Schedule Provisions, contained herein, were approved on an interim basis effective October 1, 1996. These rate schedules and provisions were approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), United States Department of Energy, in September 1996 (Docket Nos EF96-2011-000 and EF96f-2021-000). These rate schedules and General Rate Schedule Provisions were approved on a final basis by the FERC July 30, 1997, in Dept. of Energy--Bonneville Power Administration, Docket Nos. EF96-2011-000 and EF96-2021-000. Except as noted elsewhere, these 1996 rate schedules and provisions supersede BPA`s Wholesale Power Rate Schedules and General Rate Schedule Provisions, and Transmission Rate Schedules and General Transmission Rate Schedule Provisions, effective October 1, 1995. These rate schedules and general rate schedule provisions include all errata.

Astronomical scheduling problem has several external conditions that change dynamically at any time during observations, like weather condition (humidity, temperature, wind speed, opacity, etc.), and target visibility conditions (target over the horizon, Sun/Moon blocking the target). Therefore, a dynamic re-scheduling is needed. An astronomical project will be scheduled as one or more Scheduling Blocks (SBs) as an atomic unit of astronomical observations. We propose a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) solution to select the best SBs, favors SBs with high scientific values, and thus maximizing the quantity of completed observation projects. The data content of Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) projects of cycle 0 and cycle 1 were analyzed, and a synthetic set of tests of the real instances was created. Two configurations, one of 5000 SBs in a 3 months season and another 10,000 SBs a 6 months season were created. These instances were evaluated with excellent results. Through the testing it is showed that the MILP proposal has optimal solutions.

The major purpose of this report is to present information about the organization of middle schools in the school district of Philadelphia. The report includes: (1) summary information on rostering/scheduling practices; and (2) comparisons of promotion/retention rates, average daily attendance, and suspension rates in middle schools with different…

Flexible work hours have gained prominence, as more than 25 million workers (27.6% of all full-time workers) can now vary their schedules. However, there has been little change since the mid-1980s in the proportion who work a shift other than a regular daytime shift. (JOW)

This research addresses a shift scheduling problem in which physicians at a German university hospital are assigned to demand periods over a planning horizon that can extend up to several weeks. When performing the scheduling it is necessary to take into account a variety of legal and institutional constraints that are imposed by a national labor agreement, which governs all physicians in German university hospitals. Currently, most medical departments develop their staff schedules manually at great cost and time. To solve the problem, a new modeling approach is developed that requires shifts to be generated implicitly. Rather than beginning with a predetermined number of shift types and start times, shifts are allowed to start at every pre-defined period in the planning horizon and extend up to 13 h with an hour-long break included. The objective is to find an assignment such that the total hours that have to be paid out as overtime are minimal under the restrictions given by the labor agreement. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer program and solved with CPLEX. During the solution process individual lines-of-work are constructed for each physician. Using data from an anesthesia department, computational results indicate that high quality schedules can be obtained much more quickly than by current practice. PMID:19739361

Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the US Department of Energy (DOE). This document contains the planned 1996 schedules for routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP), Drinking Water Project, and Ground-Water Surveillance Project.

... concurrence of NIDA. 50 FR 9518. To make a finding that placing a substance temporarily into Schedule I of the... Schedule I are those that have a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States (U.S.), and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. 21...

Behavior-reduction interventions typically employ dense schedules of alternative reinforcement in conjunction with operant extinction for problem behavior. After problem behavior is reduced in the initial treatment stages, schedule thinning is routinely conducted to make the intervention more practical in natural environments. In the current…

The software for schedule creation and optimization solves a difficult, important and practical problem. The proposed solution is an online employee portal where administrator users can create and manage watch schedules and employee requests. Each employee can login with his/her own account and see his/her assignments, manage requests, etc. Employees set as administrators can perform the employee scheduling online, manage requests, etc. This scheduling software allows users not only to see the initial and optimized watch schedule in a simple and understandable form, but also to create special rules and criteria and input their business. The system using rules automatically will generate watch schedule.

A rehabilitation institute's needs and wants from a scheduling system were established by (1) studying the existing scheduling system and the variables that affect patient scheduling, (2) conducting a human-factors study to establish the human interfaces that affect patients' meeting prescribed therapy schedules, and (3) developing and administering a questionnaire to the staff which pertains to the various interface problems in order to identify staff requirements to minimize scheduling problems and other factors that may limit the effectiveness of any new scheduling system.

We evaluated the effects of concurrent schedules of reinforcement on negatively reinforced problem behavior and task completion with 3 children with autism. Results indicated that problem behavior occurred at high levels and relatively few tasks were completed when problem behavior produced a break (from tasks) and task completion produced either no consequence or a break. By contrast, problem behavior was eliminated and tasks were completed when problem behavior produced a break and task completion produced a break with access to preferred activities. Treatment gains were maintained without the use of extinction when the response requirement was increased and the schedule of reinforcement was thinned. PMID:12102135

Abstract—Many scientific and high-performance computing applications consist of multiple processes running on different processors that communicate frequently. Because of their synchronization needs, these applications can suffer severe performance penalties if their processes are not all coscheduled to run together. Two common approaches to coscheduling jobs are batch scheduling, wherein nodes are dedicated for the duration of the run, and gang scheduling, wherein time slicing is coordinated across processors. Both work well when jobs are load-balanced and make use of the entire parallel machine. However, these conditions are rarely met and most realistic workloads consequently suffer from both internal and external fragmentation, in which resources and processors are left idle because jobs cannot be packed with perfect efficiency. This situation leads to reduced utilization and suboptimal performance. Flexible CoScheduling (FCS) addresses this problem by monitoring each job’s computation granularity and communication pattern and scheduling jobs based on their synchronization and load-balancing requirements. In particular, jobs that do not require stringent synchronization are identified, and are not coscheduled; instead, these processes are used to reduce fragmentation. FCS has been fully implemented on top of the STORM resource manager on a 256-processor Alpha cluster and compared to batch, gang, and implicit coscheduling algorithms. This paper describes in detail the implementation of FCS and its performance evaluation with a variety of workloads, including large-scale benchmarks, scientific applications, and dynamic workloads. The experimental results show that FCS saturates at higher loads than other algorithms (up to 54 percent higher in some cases), and displays lower response times and slowdown than the other algorithms in nearly all scenarios.

We propose a new approach for integrating protocol care schedules into patients' personal calendars. This approach could provide patients with greater control over their current and future scheduling demands as they seek and receive protocol-based care. PMID:17238511

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS Virginia § 1952.371 Developmental schedule. The Virginia plan is developmental. Following is a schedule of major developmental steps:...

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS Virginia § 1952.371 Developmental schedule. The Virginia plan is developmental. Following is a schedule of major developmental steps:...

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS Virginia § 1952.371 Developmental schedule. The Virginia plan is developmental. Following is a schedule of major developmental steps:...

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS Virginia § 1952.371 Developmental schedule. The Virginia plan is developmental. Following is a schedule of major developmental steps:...

A computer model is described which uses mixed-integer linear programming to provide optimal DSN spacecraft schedules given a mission set and specified scheduling requirements. A solution technique is proposed which uses Bender's Method and a heuristic starting algorithm.

Special-purpose slide rule devised for calculating schedules for storing and curing adhesives, sealants, and other materials characterized by known curing times and shelf lives. Prevents mistakes commonly made in determining storage and curing schedules.

Clinical trial protocols include detailed temporal constraints on treatment and associated tasks. Unlike health-care guidelines, protocols are highly prescriptive. Therefore, informatics applications that enforce such temporal constraints are more directly useful with protocols than with guidelines. Although there are some temporal knowledge representation efforts for health-care guidelines, we find these to be insufficiently expressive for clinical trial protocols. In this paper, we focus on temporal knowledge representation for clinical trial protocols and the task of patient-specific scheduling in protocols. We define a temporal ontology, use it to encode clinical trial protocols, and describe a prototype tool to carry out patient-specific scheduling for the tasks in protocols. We predict that an expressive temporal knowledge representation can support a number of scheduling and management tasks for protocol-based care. PMID:12463951

In this paper we consider a simple model of real-time scheduling. We present a real-time scheduling system called RTS which is based on Korf's Minimin algorithm. Experimental results show that the schedule quality initially improves with the amount of look-ahead search and tapers off quickly. So it sppears that reasonably good schedules can be produced with a relatively shallow search.

We present a software for choosing the best radiotherapy treatmentschedule for head and neck cancers as a beginning radiotherapy plan or a temporarily interrupted plan. Its application occurs according to two modalities: the first adopts the best estimates for model parameters; the second takes into account the parameters' uncertainty too. In both cases, the choice becomes the schedule with the highest uncomplicated tumor control probability (UTCP). In the UTCP valuation, the normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) of each organ is related to the gravity of its possible late injury. For NTCP calculation, it has been adopted the empirical LKB (Lyman-Kutcher-Burman) model corrected for dose/fraction via linear-quadratic model and the incomplete repair effect. The tumor control probability (TCP) model is Poisson based and contains corrections for dose/fraction and regrowth effect; optionally, it can be accounted for the incomplete repair effect as well. At the end of processing, a detailed file with all informations about UTCP, TCP and single organ NTCP is furnished for every examined schedule. Moreover, a useful 3-D graphic representation of the schedule's UTCP is available, allowing the physician to easily understand the schedules with the highest radiotherapeutic efficacy. The open source characteristic allows the program to adapt to the individual clinical case as well as to be a valid support in radiobiological research.

Distributed computing splits a large-scale job into multiple tasks and deals with them on clusters. Cluster resource allocation is the key point to restrict the efficiency of distributed computing platform. Hadoop is the current most popular open-source distributed platform. However, the existing scheduling strategies in Hadoop are kind of simple and cannot meet the needs such as sharing the cluster for multi-user, ensuring a concept of guaranteed capacity for each job, as well as providing good performance for interactive jobs. This paper researches the existing scheduling strategies, analyses the inadequacy and adds three new features in Hadoop which can raise the weight of job temporarily, grab cluster resources by higher-priority jobs and support the computing resources share among multi-user. Experiments show they can help in providing better performance for interactive jobs, as well as more fairly share of computing time among users.

Prompted by a recent report of the possible carcinogenic effect of shiftwork focusing on the disruption of circadian rhythms, we review studies involving shifts in schedule implemented at varying intervals in unicells, insects and mammals, including humans. Results indicate the desirability to account for a broader-than-circadian view. They also suggest the possibility of optimizing schedule shifts by selecting intervals between consecutive shifts associated with potential side-effects such as an increase in cancer risk. Toward this goal, marker rhythmometry is most desirable. The monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate present the added benefit of assessing cardiovascular disease risks resulting not only from an elevated blood pressure but also from abnormal variability in blood pressure and/or heart rate of normotensive as well as hypertensive subjects. PMID:19227006

Discusses "REFLEX," a software package for scheduling. Explores the program's applications in preparing a departmental class schedule. Explains that "REFLEX" includes a filter function and some attributes of a spreadsheet but lacks the ability to interact with other databases. Concludes that the program can make scheduling easier and more…

... COMMISSION 18 CFR Part 410 Schedule of Water Charges AGENCY: Delaware River Basin Commission. ACTION: Notice... Regulations--Water Supply Charges to revise the schedule of water charges. DATES: The Commission will hold a... the subject line ``Schedule of Water Charges.'' FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Please contact...

Four pigeons were trained in a series of two-component multiple schedules. Reinforcers were scheduled with random-interval schedules. The ratio of arranged reinforcer rates in the two components was varied over 4 log units, a much wider range than previously studied. When performance appeared stable, prefeeding tests were conducted to assess…

In this analysis of 58 empirical studies of high school block scheduling, the authors report findings in and across five groupings. Within groups, data were inconsistent regarding whether teachers' practices changed, but teachers believed that staff development was necessary to teach in a block schedule. Block scheduling appeared to increase…

... 42 Public Health 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Public schedule. 457.525 Section 457.525 Public... Requirements: Enrollee Financial Responsibilities § 457.525 Public schedule. (a) The State must make available to the groups in paragraph (b) of this section a public schedule that contains the...

... 42 Public Health 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Public schedule. 457.525 Section 457.525 Public... Requirements: Enrollee Financial Responsibilities § 457.525 Public schedule. (a) The State must make available to the groups in paragraph (b) of this section a public schedule that contains the...

... 42 Public Health 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Public schedule. 447.76 Section 447.76 Public... Cost Sharing Under Section 1916a § 447.76 Public schedule. (a) The State must make available to the groups in paragraph (b) of this section a public schedule that contains the following information:...

... 42 Public Health 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Public schedule. 447.76 Section 447.76 Public... Cost Sharing Under Section 1916a § 447.76 Public schedule. (a) The State must make available to the groups in paragraph (b) of this section a public schedule that contains the following information:...

... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Public schedule. 457.525 Section 457.525 Public... Requirements: Enrollee Financial Responsibilities § 457.525 Public schedule. (a) The State must make available to the groups in paragraph (b) of this section a public schedule that contains the...

... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Public schedule. 447.76 Section 447.76 Public... Cost Sharing Under Section 1916a § 447.76 Public schedule. (a) The State must make available to the groups in paragraph (b) of this section a public schedule that contains the following information:...

Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the US Department of Energy (DOE). Samples are routinely collected and analyzed to determine the quality of air, surface water, ground water, soil, sediment, wildlife, vegetation, foodstuffs, and farm products at Hanford Site and surrounding communities. This document contains the planned schedule for routine sample collection for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) and Drinking Water Project, and Ground-Water Surveillance Project.

Environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site and surrounding areas is conducted by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This document contains the planned 1994 schedules for routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP), Drinking Water Project, and Ground-Water Surveillance Project. Samples are routinely collected for the SESP and analyzed to determine the quality of air, surface water, soil, sediment, wildlife, vegetation, foodstuffs, and farm products at Hanford Site and surrounding communities. The responsibility for monitoring onsite drinking water falls outside the scope of the SESP. PNL conducts the drinking water monitoring project concurrent with the SESP to promote efficiency and consistency, utilize expertise developed over the years, and reduce costs associated with management, procedure development, data management, quality control, and reporting. The ground-water sampling schedule identifies ground-water sampling .events used by PNL for environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site. Sampling is indicated as annual, semi-annual, quarterly, or monthly in the sampling schedule. Some samples are collected and analyzed as part of ground-water monitoring and characterization programs at Hanford (e.g. Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), or Operational). The number of samples planned by other programs are identified in the sampling schedule by a number in the analysis column and a project designation in the Cosample column. Well sampling events may be merged to avoid redundancy in cases where sampling is planned by both-environmental surveillance and another program.

Systems and methods are described for arbitrating access of a communication bus. In one embodiment, a method includes performing steps on one or more processors. The steps include: receiving an access request from a device of the communication bus; evaluating a bus schedule to determine an importance of the device based on the access request; and selectively granting access of the communication bus to the device based on the importance of the device.

A systematic technique is presented to derive correct schedules for a synchronous digital system, given a signal flow graph for an algorithm. It is also shown how to use this technique to derive designs that are optimal in having the lowest latency, the highest throughput, or the smallest number of registers. The same technique can also be used to verify digital systems that have already been designed.

The launch schedule for Intelsat 5-B, the prime Intelsat satellite to provide communications services between the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, is presented. The planned placement of the satellite into an elliptical transfer orbit, and circularization of the orbit at geosynchronous altitude over the equator are described. Characteristics of the Atlas Centaur launch vehicle, AC-56, are given. The launch operation is summarized and the launch sequence presented. The Intelsat team and contractors are listed.

An important issue that must be faced while introducing Ada into the real time world is efficient and prodictable runtime behavior. One of the most effective methods employed during the traditional design of a real time system is the cyclic executive. The role cyclic scheduling might play in an Ada application in terms of currently available implementations and in terms of implementations that might be developed especially to support real time system development is examined. The cyclic executive solves many of the problems faced by real time designers, resulting in a system for which it is relatively easy to achieve approporiate timing behavior. Unfortunately a cyclic executive carries with it a very high maintenance penalty over the lifetime of the software that is schedules. Additionally, these cyclic systems tend to be quite fragil when any aspect of the system changes. The findings are presented of an ongoing SofTech investigation into Ada methods for real time system development. The topics covered include a description of the costs involved in using cyclic schedulers, the sources of these costs, and measures for future systems to avoid these costs without giving up the runtime performance of a cyclic system.

Reference desk scheduling is one of the most challenging tasks in the organizational structure of an academic library. The ability to turn this challenge into a workable and effective function lies with the scheduler and indirectly the cooperation of all librarians scheduled for reference desk service. It is the scheduler's sensitivity to such…

... schedule of maximum allowable charges does not apply to charges for services provided in nursing homes, but it does apply to charges for treatment furnished in a nursing home by a physician or other...

... schedule of maximum allowable charges does not apply to charges for services provided in nursing homes, but it does apply to charges for treatment furnished in a nursing home by a physician or other...

This presentation covers fundamental requirements and considerations for developing schedulers in airport operations. We first introduce performance and functional requirements for airport surface schedulers. Among various optimization problems in airport operations, we focus on airport surface scheduling problem, including runway and taxiway operations. We then describe a basic methodology for airport surface scheduling such as node-link network model and scheduling algorithms previously developed. Next, we explain how to design a mathematical formulation in more details, which consists of objectives, decision variables, and constraints. Lastly, we review other considerations, including optimization tools, computational performance, and performance metrics for evaluation.

Mission planning and scheduling of spacecraft operations are becoming more complex at NASA. Described here are a mission planning process; a robust, flexible planning language for spacecraft and payload operations; and a software scheduling system that generates schedules based on planning language inputs. The mission planning process often involves many people and organizations. Consequently, a planning language is needed to facilitate communication, to provide a standard interface, and to represent flexible requirements. The software scheduling system interprets the planning language and uses the resource, time duration, constraint, and alternative plan flexibilities to resolve scheduling conflicts.

To support the distributed and complex operational scheduling required for future National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions, a formal, textual language, the Scheduling Applications Interface Language (SAIL), has been developed. Increased geographic dispersion of investigators is leading to distributed mission and science activity planning, scheduling, and operations. SAIL is an innovation which supports the effective and efficient communication of scheduling information among physically dispersed applications in distributed scheduling environments. SAIL offers a clear, concise, unambiguous expression of scheduling information in a readable, hardware independent format. The language concept, syntax, and semantics incorporate language features found useful during five years of research and prototyping with scheduling languages in physically distributed environments. SAIL allows concise specification of mission and science activity plans in a format which promotes repetition and reuse.

Scheduling is an important operation in process industries for improving resource utilization resulting in direct economic benefits. It has a two-fold objective of fulfilling customer orders within the specified time as well as maximizing the plant profit. Unexpected disturbances such as machine breakdown, arrival of rush orders and cancellation of orders affect the schedule of the plant. Reactive scheduling is generation of a new schedule which has minimum deviation from the original schedule in spite of the occurrence of unexpected events in the plant operation. Recently, Shaik & Floudas (2009) proposed a novel unified model for short-term scheduling of multipurpose batch plants using unit-specific event-based continuous time representation. In this paper, we extend the model of Shaik & Floudas (2009) to handle reactive scheduling.

Some of the more significant lessons learned during the development of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Distributed Planning and Scheduling Prototype are presented. The need for a central scheduler is not demonstrated. A mapping of scheduling and conflict-resolution responsibility across the nodes of the EOS distributed scheduling system is developed and shown to be both feasible and appropriate. Complex instrument scheduling is mostly accomplished at the ICC/IST (instrument control center/instrumental support terminal) with 'slidable' flexibility for slews and some kinds of calibrations resolved at the EOS Operations Center (EOC). All nodes have full visibility interinstrument contention for resource and environmental rights, e.g., vibration, thermal, and electromagnetic. The EOC assigns, by activity, initial action responsibility for conflict resolution to a node which is party to the conflict. Most interinstrument conflicts are resolved by the ICCs and ISTs during an intermediate scheduling phase while the EOC is negotiating a TDRS schedule with the NCC.

Some of the more significant lessons learned during the development of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Distributed Planning and Scheduling Prototype are presented. The need for a central scheduler is not demonstrated. A mapping of scheduling and conflict-resolution responsibility across the nodes of the EOS distributed scheduling system is developed and shown to be both feasible and appropriate. Complex instrument scheduling is mostly accomplished at the ICC/IST (instrument control center/instrumental support terminal) with 'slidable' flexibility for slews and some kinds of calibrations resolved at the EOS Operations Center (EOC). All nodes have full visibility interinstrument contention for resource and environmental rights, e.g., vibration, thermal, and electromagnetic. The EOC assigns, by activity, initial action responsibility for conflict resolution to a node which is party to the conflict. Most interinstrument conflicts are resolved by the ICCs and ISTs during an intermediate scheduling phase while the EOC is negotiating a TDRS schedule with the NCC.

The goal of this research is to improve the performance of automated schedulers by designing and implementing an algorithm by automatically generating heuristics by selecting a schedule. The particular application selected by applying this method solves the problem of scheduling telescope observations, and is called the Associate Principal Astronomer. The input to the APA scheduler is a set of observation requests submitted by one or more astronomers. Each observation request specifies an observation program as well as scheduling constraints and preferences associated with the program. The scheduler employs greedy heuristic search to synthesize a schedule that satisfies all hard constraints of the domain and achieves a good score with respect to soft constraints expressed as an objective function established by an astronomer-user.

Scheduling is the task of assigning resources to operations. When the resources are mobile vehicles, they describe routes through the served stations. To emphasize such aspect, this problem is usually referred to as the routing problem. In particular, if vehicles are aircraft and stations are airports, the problem is known as aircraft routing. This paper describes the solution to such a problem developed in OMAR (Operative Management of Aircraft Routing), a system implemented by Bull HN for Alitalia. In our approach, aircraft routing is viewed as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem. The solving strategy combines network consistency and tree search techniques.

When dataflow program graphs can be statically scheduled, little run-time overhead (software or hardware) is necessary. This paper describes a class of parallel architectures consisting of von Neumann processors and one or more shared memories, where the order of shared- memory access is determined at compile time and enforced at run time. The architecture is extremely lean in hardware, yet for a set of important applications it can perform as well as any shared-memory architecture. Dataflow graphs can be mapped onto it statically. Furthermore, it supports shared data structures without the run-time overhead of I-structures. A software environment has been constructed that automatically maps signal processing applications onto a simulation of such an architecture, where the architecture is implemented using Motorola DSP96002 microcomputers. Static (compile-time) scheduling is possible for a subclass of dataflow program graphs where the firing pattern of actors is data independent. This model is suitable for digital signal processing and some other scientific computation. It supports recurrences, manifest iteration, and conditional assignment. However, it does not support true recursion, data-dependent iteration, or conditional evaluation. An effort is under way to weaken the constraints of the model to determine the implications for hardware design.

This document contains the planned 1994 schedules for routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP), Drinking Water Project, and Ground-Water Surveillance Project. Samples are routinely collected for the SESP and analyzed to determine the quality of air, surface water, soil, sediment, wildlife, vegetation, foodstuffs, and farm products at Hanford Site and surrounding communities. The responsibility for monitoring the onsite drinking water falls outside the scope of the SESP. The Hanford Environmental Health Foundation is responsible for monitoring the nonradiological parameters as defined in the National Drinking Water Standards while PNL conducts the radiological monitoring of the onsite drinking water. PNL conducts the drinking water monitoring project concurrent with the SESP to promote efficiency and consistency, utilize the expertise developed over the years, and reduce costs associated with management, procedure development, data management, quality control and reporting. The ground-water sampling schedule identifies ground-water sampling events used by PNL for environmental surveillance of the Hanford Site.

With the issuance of this final rule, the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration reschedules hydrocodone combination products from schedule III to schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act. This scheduling action is pursuant to the Controlled Substances Act which requires that such actions be made on the record after opportunity for a hearing through formal rulemaking. This action imposes the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to schedule II controlled substances on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, dispense, import, export, engage in research, conduct instructional activities with, conduct chemical analysis with, or possess) or propose to handle hydrocodone combination products. PMID:25167591

The typical batch queuing system schedules jobs for execution by a set of queue controls. The controls determine from which queues jobs may be selected. Within the queue, jobs are ordered first-in, first-run. This limits the set of scheduling policies available to a site. The Portable Batch System removes this limitation by providing an external scheduling module. This separate program has full knowledge of the available queued jobs, running jobs, and system resource usage. Sites are able to implement any policy expressible in one of several procedural language. Policies may range from "bet fit" to "fair share" to purely political. Scheduling decisions can be made over the full set of jobs regardless of queue or order. The scheduling policy can be changed to fit a wide variety of computing environments and scheduling goals. This is demonstrated by the use of PBS on an IBM SP-2 system at NASA Ames.

We present the Dynamic Priority (DP) parallel task scheduler for Hadoop. It allows users to control their allocated capacity by adjusting their spending over time. This simple mechanism allows the scheduler to make more efficient decisions about which jobs and users to prioritize and gives users the tool to optimize and customize their allocations to fit the importance and requirements of their jobs. Additionally, it gives users the incentive to scale back their jobs when demand is high, since the cost of running on a slot is then also more expensive. We envision our scheduler to be used by deadline or budget optimizing agents on behalf of users. We describe the design and implementation of the DP scheduler and experimental results. We show that our scheduler enforces service levels more accurately and also scales to more users with distinct service levels than existing schedulers.

Mine countermeasures (MCM) missions entail planning and operations in very dynamic and uncertain operating environments, which pose considerable risk to personnel and equipment. Frequent schedule repairs are needed that consider the latest operating conditions to keep mission on target. Presently no decision support tools are available for the challenging task of MCM mission rescheduling. To address this capability gap, we have developed the CARPE system to assist operation planners. CARPE constantly monitors the operational environment for changes and recommends alternative repaired schedules in response. It includes a novel schedule repair algorithm called Case-Based Local Schedule Repair (CLOSR) that automatically repairs broken schedules while satisfying the requirement of minimal operational disruption. It uses a case-based approach to represent repair strategies and apply them to new situations. Evaluation of CLOSR on simulated MCM operations demonstrates the effectiveness of case-based strategy. Schedule repairs are generated rapidly, ensure the elimination of all mines, and achieve required levels of clearance.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and antitumor activity of ispinesib, a kinesin spindle protein inhibitor. Patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who had received only prior neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy were treated with escalating doses of ispinesib administered as a 1-h infusion on days 1 and 15 every 28 days until toxicity or progression of disease. Doses were escalated until dose-limiting toxicity was observed in two out of six patients during cycle 1. A total of 16 patients were treated at three dose levels: 10 mg/m (n=3), 12 mg/m (n=6), and 14 mg/m (n=7). Forty-four percent of the patients had locally advanced disease and 56% had metastatic disease; 50% were estrogen receptor positive, 44% were progesterone receptor positive, 25% human epidermal growth factor 2 were positive, and 31% triple (estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, human epidermal growth factor 2) negative. Sixty-nine percent of patients were chemo-naive. The maximum tolerated dose was 12 mg/m and dose-limiting toxicity was grade 3 increased aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase. The most common toxicities included neutropenia (88%; 38% grade 3 and 44% grade 4), increased alanine aminotransferase (56%), anemia (38%), increased aspartate aminotransferase (31%), and diarrhea (31%). No neuropathy, mucositis, or alopecia was reported. Among the 15 patients evaluable for antitumor activity, there were three partial responses, one confirmed by the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (7% response rate). Nine patients (60%) had stable disease lasting at least 42 days, with four (27%) lasting for at least 90 days. Disease stabilization (partial responses+stable disease) was observed in 11 (73.3%) patients. In conclusion, ispinesib was well tolerated when administered on days 1 and 15 every 28 days. Limited activity was observed with this schedule in patients with previously untreated advanced breast cancer

Resupply Scheduling Modeler (RSM) fully menu-driven computer program using integer programming techniques to determine optimum schedule for replacing components on or before ends of fixed replacement periods. Written to analyze electrical power system on Space Station Freedom, also used to model resupply of almost any system subject to user-defined constraints on resources. Lifetimes of components, assembly schedules, and other constraints taken into account. Written in APL2(R).

The intention of the scheduling system developed at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Material Flow and Logistics is the support of a scheduler working in a job-shop. Due to the existing requirements for a job-shop scheduling system the usage of flexible knowledge representation and processing techniques is necessary. Within this system the attempt was made to combine the advantages of symbolic AI-techniques with those of neural networks.

The limited availability and high cost of crew time and scarce resources make optimization of space operations critical. Advances in computer technology coupled with new iterative search techniques permit the near optimization of complex scheduling problems that were previously considered computationally intractable. Described here is a class of search techniques called Intelligent Perturbation Algorithms. Several scheduling systems which use these algorithms to optimize the scheduling of space crew, payload, and resource operations are also discussed.

The Spent Nuclear Fuel Integrated Schedule Plan establishes the organizational responsibilities, rules for developing, maintain and status of the SNF integrated schedule, and an implementation plan for the integrated schedule. The mission of the SNFP on the Hanford site is to provide safe, economic, environmentally sound management of Hanford SNF in a manner which stages it to final disposition. This particularly involves K Basin fuel.

A decision support system is developed for personnel scheduling in a multiple warehouse environment. The system incorporates current manpower level, historical data of workers used, empirical load distributions, and performance standards to generate manpower requirements for a specified planning horizon. The software has been developed to be easily adaptable to varying situational details, therefore is widely applicable in different warehouse settings. The system offers personnel managers a valuable tool for evaluating alternative schedules and making intelligent decisions regarding personnel scheduling in warehouses.

This paper is concerned with the problem of allocating a unit capacity resource to multiple users within a pre-defined time period. The resource is indivisible, so that at most one user can use it at each time instance. However, different users may use it at different times. The users have independent, se@sh preferences for when and for how long they are allocated this resource. Thus, they value different resource access durations differently, and they value different time slots differently. We seek an optimal allocation schedule for this resource. This problem arises in many institutional settings where, e.g., different departments, agencies, or personal, compete for a single resource. We are particularly motivated by the problem of scheduling NASA's Deep Space Satellite Network (DSN) among different users within NASA. Access to DSN is needed for transmitting data from various space missions to Earth. Each mission has different needs for DSN time, depending on satellite and planetary orbits. Typically, the DSN is over-subscribed, in that not all missions will be allocated as much time as they want. This leads to various inefficiencies - missions spend much time and resource lobbying for their time, often exaggerating their needs. NASA, on the other hand, would like to make optimal use of this resource, ensuring that the good for NASA is maximized. This raises the thorny problem of how to measure the utility to NASA of each allocation. In the typical case, it is difficult for the central agency, NASA in our case, to assess the value of each interval to each user - this is really only known to the users who understand their needs. Thus, our problem is more precisely formulated as follows: find an allocation schedule for the resource that maximizes the sum of users preferences, when the preference values are private information of the users. We bypass this problem by making the assumptions that one can assign money to customers. This assumption is reasonable; a

Mobil North Sea Ltd. has installed an operator guidance tool at its SAGE gas-processing plant at St. Fergus, Scotland (SAGE: Scottish Area Gas Evacuation). The system, supplied by MDC Technology, Teesside, U.K., will aid process decision making at the plant under MDC Technology`s RTO+ software. In addition, Shell U.K. Exploration and Production (Shell Expro) has installed a pipeline-scheduling system, also supplied by MDC Technology, at its Aberdeen control center. The system aids gas-movement scheduling through Shell Expro`s St. Fergus gas plant. The Northern Systems and Plant Scheduling (NSPS) system integrates MDC Technology`s RTO+ package with Microsoft Visual Basic and Excel. Mobil`s SAGE gas terminal at St. Fergus has two identical process trains (NGL recovery and acid-gas treatment), each with a capacity of 16.25 million std. cu m/day. The paper describes the guidance tool, the scheduling aid, and the installation of the NSPS.

Glioblastomas are the most aggressive primary brain tumor. Despite treatment with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, these tumors remain uncurable and few significant increases in survival have been observed over the last half-century. We recently employed a combined theoretical and experimental approach to predict the effectiveness of radiation administration schedules, identifying two schedules that led to superior survival in a mouse model of the disease (Leder et al., Cell 156(3):603-616, 2014). Here we extended this approach to consider fractionated schedules to best minimize toxicity arising in early- and late-responding tissues. To this end, we decomposed the problem into two separate solvable optimization tasks: (i) optimization of the amount of radiation per dose, and (ii) optimization of the amount of time that passes between radiation doses. To ensure clinical applicability, we then considered the impact of clinical operating hours by incorporating time constraints consistent with operational schedules of the radiology clinic. We found that there was no significant loss incurred by restricting dosage to an 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. window. Our flexible approach is also applicable to other tumor types treated with radiotherapy. PMID:26094055

Although the use of punishment often raises ethical issues, such procedures may be needed when the reinforcers that maintain behavior cannot be identified or controlled, or when competing reinforcers cannot be found. Results of several studies on the effects of intermittent schedules of punishment suggest that therapists must use fairly rich schedules of punishment to suppress problem behavior. However, residential caretakers, teachers, and parents often have difficulty implementing programs that require constant monitoring of the client's behavior. In this study, we examined the feasibility of gradually thinning the delivery of punishment from a continuous schedule to an intermittent schedule during the course of treatment for self-injurious behavior (SIB). Results of functional analyses for 5 individuals who had been diagnosed with profound mental retardation indicated that their SIB was not maintained by social consequences. Treatment with continuous schedules of time-out (for 1 participant) or contingent restraint (for the other 4 participants) produced substantial reductions in SIB. When they were exposed to intermittent schedules of punishment (fixed-interval [FI] 120 s or FI 300 s), SIB for all but 1 of the participants increased to levels similar to those observed during baseline. For these 4 participants, the schedule of punishment was gradually thinned from continuous to FI 120 s or FI 300 s. For 2 participants, SIB remained low across the schedule changes, demonstrating the utility of thinning from continuous to intermittent schedules of punishment. Results for the other 2 participants showed that intermittent punishment was ineffective, despite repeated attempts to thin the schedule. PMID:9210302

A Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (Perl) script called merge7da has been developed to facilitate determination, by a project scheduler in NASA's Deep Space Network, of whether a proposal for use of the DSN could create a conflict with the current DSN schedule. Prior to the development of merge7da, there was no way to quickly identify potential schedule conflicts: it was necessary to submit a proposal and wait a day or two for a response from a DSN scheduling facility. By using merge7da to detect and eliminate potential schedule conflicts before submitting a proposal, a project scheduler saves time and gains assurance that the proposal will probably be accepted. merge7da accepts two input files, one of which contains the current DSN schedule and is in a DSN-standard format called '7da'. The other input file contains the proposal and is in another DSN-standard format called 'C1/C2'. merge7da processes the two input files to produce a merged 7da-format output file that represents the DSN schedule as it would be if the proposal were to be adopted. This 7da output file can be loaded into various DSN scheduling software tools now in use.

An AVLIS Production Plant Deployment Schedule for the engineering, procurement, and construction for both the Initial Increment of Production and the fully Activated Plant, has been developed by the project team consisting of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. with architect-engineer support from Bechtel National, Inc., Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation, and Westinghouse Corporation. The initial deployment phase consists of six separators modules and the three laser power amplifier modules consistent with the FY84 reference design with a name plate capacity of 5 million separative work units/yr followed by a full plant activation to approximately 13 million separative work units/yr. The AVLIS Production Plant project team's strategy for deployment schedule analysis focused on three schedule options: engineering limited schedule; authorization limited schedule; and funding limited project schedule. The three deployment schedule options developed by AVLIS project team have been classified in ranges such as an optimistic, rapid/moderate, or moderate/pessimistic based on the probability of meeting the individual schedule option's major milestones or program objectives of enriching uranium by the AVLIS process in an effective cost and schedule manner. 47 figures, 7 tables.

Flexible scheduling and its impact on nursing are topics of growing interest among nurses. Described in this article is a flexible scheduling system developed by a surgical intensive care unit nursing staff around a core of 12 1/2-hour work shifts. As a result of careful consideration and planning, a master schedule, staffing guidelines, and a work agreement were prepared for a large department of nursing. Administrators of other departments of nursing implementing flexible scheduling should find this information useful. PMID:6553600

A general model for job shop scheduling is described which applies to static, dynamic and non-deterministic production environments. Next, a Genetic Algorithm is presented which solves the job shop scheduling problem. This algorithm is tested in a dynamic environment under different workload situations. Thereby, a highly efficient decoding procedure is proposed which strongly improves the quality of schedules. Finally, this technique is tested for scheduling and rescheduling in a non-deterministic environment. It is shown by experiment that conventional methods of production control are clearly outperformed at reasonable run-time costs. PMID:10199993

The Satellite Mission Scheduling problem (SMS) involves scheduling tasks to be performed by a satellite, where new task requests can arrive at any time, non-deterministically, and must be scheduled in real-time. This paper describes a new Satellite Mission Scheduling problem based on Genetic Algorithm (SMSGA). In this paper, it investigates algorithmic approaches for determining an optimal or near-optimal sequence of tasks, allocated to a satellite payload over time, with dynamic tasking considerations. The simulation results show that the proposed approach is effective and efficient in applications to the real problems.

The operation of the payload specialist training scheduler (PACTS) is discussed in this user's manual which is used to schedule payload specialists for mission training on the Spacelab experiments. The PACTS program is a fully automated interactive, computerized scheduling program equipped with tutorial displays. The tutorial displays are sufficiently detailed for use by a program analyst having no computer experience. The PACTS program is designed to operate on the UNIVAC 1108 computer system, and has the capability to load output into a PDP 11/45 Interactive Graphics Display System for printing schedules. The program has the capacity to handle up to three overlapping Spacelab missions.

We present a network-aware HEFT. The original HEFT does not take care of parallel network flows while designing its schedule for a computational environment where computing nodes are physically at distant locations. In the proposed mechanism, such data transfers are stretched to their realistic completion time. A HEFT schedule with stretched data transfers exhibits the realistic makespan of the schedule. It is shown how misleading a schedule can be if the impact of parallel data transfers that share a bottleneck is ignored. A network-aware HEFT can be used to yield a benefit for Grid applications. PMID:24587719

The Cassini Uplink Scheduler (CASSIUS) is cross-platform software used to generate a radiation sequence plan for commands being sent to the Cassini spacecraft. Because signals must travel through varying amounts of Earth's atmosphere, several different modes of constant telemetry rates have been devised. These modes guarantee that the spacecraft and the Deep Space Network agree with respect to the data transmission rate. However, the memory readout of a command will be lost if it occurs on a telemetry mode boundary. Given a list of spacecraft message files as well as the available telemetry modes, CASSIUS can find an uplink sequence that ensures safe transmission of each file. In addition, it can predict when the two on-board solid state recorders will swap. CASSIUS prevents data corruption by making sure that commands are not planned for memory readout during telemetry rate changes or a solid state recorder swap.

The Schedule Organizer, SO (COSMIC Program MSC-21525), Schedule Tracker, ST (COSMIC Program MSC-21526), and Report Generator, SRG (COSMIC Program MSC-21527), are programs that manipulate data base files in ways that are advantageous to scheduling applications. Originally designed for the Space Shuttle flight schedule, the program can be easily modified for other scheduling situations. Schedule Organizer provides a simple method for generating distribution lists. These distribution lists contain readers' names for each task schedule defined by the input files. Schedule Organizer contains a primary menu that is displayed at the beginning of the program. The menu provides options as follows: to write input files to an output distribution file, to change a schedule title field and/or distribution list field, to browse through the schedule and input names file for requested schedule numbers, to create an input names file and a schedule titles file, and to delete input schedule titles and associated names. SO provides a choice of two input files. One file holds 25 groups of up to 25 names for each group. The other file holds 25 records. Each 60-character-long record holds a task schedule title or it is a blank entry. SO creates three output files. One holds the formatted list of schedule titles for printout. Another file holds the formatted distribution list for printout. There is one for each input names file schedule group. The third output file holds the schedule title of the last schedule title file deleted by the user. Schedule Tracker provides an effective method for tracking tasks that are "past due" and/or "near term". ST generates reports for each responsible staff member with one or more assigned tasks that fall within the two listed categories. This enables an engineering manager to monitor tasks assigned to staff by running ST on a weekly basis. ST only lists tasks on reports that have become past due or are scheduled for recent completion (near term

... Secretary's scheduling responsibilities under the CSA, with the concurrence of NIDA. 50 FR 9518. In addition... provisions of the CSA. 76 FR 55616. Following this, on October 21, 2011, DEA published a Final Order in the... Schedule I of the CSA pursuant to the temporary scheduling provisions of 21 U.S.C. 811(h). 76 FR...

Categories of facilities utilization and scheduling requirements to be considered when using a heuristic approach to timetabling are described together with a nine-step algorithm and the computerized timetabling system, Timetable Schedules System (TTS); TTS utilizes heuristic approach. An example demonstrating use of TTS and a program flowchart…

What does research say about the four-day week as an alternative school schedule? More than 100 districts in at least 12 states currently use a four-day week alternative schedule. Most are located in rural areas, serve less than 1000 students, and made the move to a shorter school week with longer instructional days for financial reasons. Although…

The notion of contingency scheduling for women is presented in this discussion of how women schedule their futures--marriage, child-bearing, professional training, and career development--and how colleges and universities can be more responsive to their needs. (Author/AF)

Equipment for monitoring soil water content and sometimes bulk electrical conductivity can be used for scheduling irrigations if the accuracy of the equipment is sufficient to avoid damanging plants and wasting water and fertilizer. Irrigation scheduling is the process of deciding when to irrigate a...

Block scheduling has become an increasingly popular reform movement for schools, school districts, and principals to enact. Much of the decision making as to whether to implement some type of block scheduling has occurred without understanding the implications this type of reform has on teachers and their classroom practices. This paper reports on…

... receipt dates). If the conflicting orders are scheduled to be delivered or performed on the same day, the... production items or services, in a timely manner to satisfy the delivery requirements of each rated order. Modifying production or delivery schedules is necessary only when required delivery dates for rated...

... receipt dates). If the conflicting orders are scheduled to be delivered or performed on the same day, the... production items or services, in a timely manner to satisfy the delivery requirements of each rated order. Modifying production or delivery schedules is necessary only when required delivery dates for rated...

... receipt dates). If the conflicting orders are scheduled to be delivered or performed on the same day, the... production items or services, in a timely manner to satisfy the delivery requirements of each rated order. Modifying production or delivery schedules is necessary only when required delivery dates for rated...

...) AMBIENT AIR QUALITY SURVEILLANCE Monitoring Network § 58.12 Operating schedules. State and local... part. Area-specific PAMS operating schedules must be included as part of the PAMS network description... remains once every six days. No less frequently than as part of each 5-year network assessment, the...

...) AMBIENT AIR QUALITY SURVEILLANCE Monitoring Network § 58.12 Operating schedules. State and local... part. Area-specific PAMS operating schedules must be included as part of the PAMS network description... remains once every six days. No less frequently than as part of each 5-year network assessment, the...

An algorithm is developed for sequencing and scheduling of observations of stellar targets by equipment on Spacelab. The method is a general one. The scheduling problem is defined and examined. The method developed for its solution is documented. Suggestions for further development and implementation of this method are made.

This document describes the variable student scheduling program at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. Under this plan students have Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes and Tuesday-Thursday classes of approximately one hour. Four- and five-day-a-week classes are also scheduled. The program is now in its third year of…

Use of the music block schedule for elementary band, chorus, and orchestra programs has many advantages. For example, it eliminates the need to pull students from class and abates classroom teacher and music teacher friction. Solutions to other problems often encountered in scheduling are also discussed. (RM)

...) AMBIENT AIR QUALITY SURVEILLANCE Monitoring Network § 58.12 Operating schedules. State and local... part. Area-specific PAMS operating schedules must be included as part of the PAMS network description... to the historical PM 2.5 data quality assessments, the location of current PM 2.5 design value...

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS North Carolina § 1952.151 Developmental schedule. The North Carolina Plan is developmental. The following is the schedule of the developmental... after ratification of the draft bill. (q) The State of North Carolina will be fully operational...

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS North Carolina § 1952.151 Developmental schedule. The North Carolina Plan is developmental. The following is the schedule of the developmental... after ratification of the draft bill. (q) The State of North Carolina will be fully operational...

In this article, I argue that a class of religious behaviors exists that is induced, for prepared organisms, by specific stimuli that are experienced according to a response-independent schedule. Like other schedule-induced behaviors, the members of this class serve as minimal units out of which functional behavior may arise. In this way, there…

McSweeney and Weatherly (1998) argued that differential habituation to the reinforcer contributes to the behavioral interactions observed during multiple schedules. The present experiment confirmed that introducing dishabituators into one component of a multiple schedule increases response rate in the other, constant, component. During baseline,…

As humankind embarks on longer space missions farther from home, the requirements and environments for scheduling the activities performed on these missions are changing. As we begin to prepare for these missions it is appropriate to evaluate the merits and applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. Scheduling engines temporally arrange tasks onto a timeline so that all constraints and ob.jectives are met and resources are not over-booked. Scheduling engines used to schedule space missions fall into three general categories: batch, mixed-initiative, and incremental. This paper, presents an assessment of the engine types, a discussion of the impact of human exploration of the moon and Mars on planning and scheduling, and the applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. This paper will pursue the hypothesis that incremental scheduling engines may have a place in the new environment; they have the potential to reduce cost, to improve the satisfaction of those who execute or benefit from a particular timeline (the customers), and to allow astronauts to plan their own tasks and those of their companion robots.

... pursuant to 40 CFR 60.21(h) would be specified at that time; this is an acceptable procedure pursuant to 40 CFR 60.24(e)(2). However, the State must submit these schedules to EPA for approval; and these schedules must meet the public hearing requirements of 40 CFR 60.23 or ones deemed equivalent by...

... pursuant to 40 CFR 60.21(h) would be specified at that time; this is an acceptable procedure pursuant to 40 CFR 60.24(e)(2). However, the State must submit these schedules to EPA for approval; and these schedules must meet the public hearing requirements of 40 CFR 60.23 or ones deemed equivalent by...

... pursuant to 40 CFR 60.21(h) would be specified at that time; this is an acceptable procedure pursuant to 40 CFR 60.24(e)(2). However, the State must submit these schedules to EPA for approval; and these schedules must meet the public hearing requirements of 40 CFR 60.23 or ones deemed equivalent by...

... pursuant to 40 CFR 60.21(h) would be specified at that time; this is an acceptable procedure pursuant to 40 CFR 60.24(e)(2). However, the State must submit these schedules to EPA for approval; and these schedules must meet the public hearing requirements of 40 CFR 60.23 or ones deemed equivalent by...

... pursuant to 40 CFR 60.21(h) would be specified at that time; this is an acceptable procedure pursuant to 40 CFR 60.24(e)(2). However, the State must submit these schedules to EPA for approval; and these schedules must meet the public hearing requirements of 40 CFR 60.23 or ones deemed equivalent by...

A computer program assists human schedulers in satisfying, to the maximum extent possible, competing demands from multiple spacecraft missions for utilization of the transmitting/receiving Earth stations of NASA s Deep Space Network. The program embodies a concept of optimal scheduling to attain multiple objectives in the presence of multiple constraints.

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS New Mexico § 1952.361 Developmental schedule. The New Mexico State Plan is developmental. The following is the developmental schedule as... by January 31, 1976. (c) Promulgation of Rules of Procedures for administrative review by the...

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS New Mexico § 1952.361 Developmental schedule. The New Mexico State Plan is developmental. The following is the developmental schedule as... by January 31, 1976. (c) Promulgation of Rules of Procedures for administrative review by the...

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS New Mexico § 1952.361 Developmental schedule. The New Mexico State Plan is developmental. The following is the developmental schedule as... by January 31, 1976. (c) Promulgation of Rules of Procedures for administrative review by the...

... (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS New Mexico § 1952.361 Developmental schedule. The New Mexico State Plan is developmental. The following is the developmental schedule as... by January 31, 1976. (c) Promulgation of Rules of Procedures for administrative review by the...

Irrigators in many countries with dwindling water supplies face the prospect that they will not be able to fully irrigate their crops. In these cases, they still need to schedule their water applications to make the best economic use of available water. Major scheduling questions for deficit irrigat...

In the United States most teacher compensation issues are decided at the school district level. However, a group of states have chosen to play a role in teacher pay decisions by instituting statewide teacher salary schedules. Education Commission of the States has found that 17 states currently make use of teacher salary schedules. This education…

The scheduler accepts a preprocessed C program with optional Streams-C extensions. It translates it to a normalized form with additional information for scheduling it on a reconfigurable architecture. The resulting file is accepted by the Streams-C VHDL generator, not part of this package.

... domestic law and international conventions and agreements adopted by the United States; such terminal... terminals from liability for their own negligence. (2) Enforcement of terminal schedules. Any schedule that... paragraph (b)(2) of this section, this part does not apply to bulk cargo, forest products, recycled...

We propose a method for achieving an optimal protocol of intermittent androgen suppression for the treatment of prostate cancer. Since the model that reproduces the dynamical behavior of the surrogate tumor marker, prostate specific antigen, is piecewise linear, we can obtain an analytical solution for the model. Based on this, we derive conditions for either stopping or delaying recurrent disease. The solution also provides a design principle for the most favorable schedule of treatment that minimizes the rate of expansion of the malignant cell population.

The rapid development of information technology and e- commerce requires fast response form scheduling systems. Based on the Lagrangian relaxation approach for job shop scheduling, this paper present an integrated system that will generate schedules quickly. The Lagrangian relaxation approach is an iterative optimization process, where dynamic programming is solved in each iteration. Since dynamic programming is computational expensive especially for large problems, this paper develops the simplified dynamic programming, which will cut the computation time of each iteration by one order. Furthermore, a digital circuit to be embedded in PC is designed to implement the iterative optimization algorithm, leading to another order of speed improvement. The resulting integrated scheduling system consists of the hardware for optimization and the related software. It is estimated that two orders of magnitude gain in speed can be obtained, which will make on-line scheduling for practical job shops possible.

The proposal database and scheduling system for the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer will be described. The proposal database has been implemented to take input for approved observations selected by the EUVE Peer Review Panel and output target information suitable for the scheduling system to digest. The scheduling system is a hybrid of the SPIKE program and EUVE software which checks spacecraft constraints, produces a proposed schedule and selects spacecraft orientations with optimal configurations for acquiring star trackers, etc. This system has been used to schedule the In Orbit Calibration activities that took place this summer, following the EUVE launch in early June 1992. The implemented strategy has implications for the selection of approved targets, which have impacted the Peer Review process. In addition, it will be discussed how the proposal database, founded on Sybase, controls the processing of EUVE Guest Observer data.

Suggests that with the shortage of nursing personnel, hospital administrators have to pay more attention to the needs of nurses to retain and recruit them. Also asserts that improving nurses' schedules is one of the most economic ways for the hospital administration to create a better working environment for nurses. Develops an algorithm for scheduling nursing personnel. Contrary to the current hospital approach, which schedules nurses on a person-by-person basis, the proposed algorithm constructs schedules on a day-by-day basis. The algorithm has inherent flexibility in handling a variety of possible constraints and goals, similar to other non-cyclical approaches. But, unlike most other non-cyclical approaches, it can also generate a quality schedule in a short time on a microcomputer. The algorithm was coded in C language and run on a microcomputer. The developed software is currently implemented at a leading hospital in Taiwan. The response to the initial implementation is quite promising. PMID:10167872

Recent research findings suggest that reinforcing stimuli may be differentially effective as response requirements increase. We extended this line of research by evaluating responding under increasing schedule requirements via progressive-ratio schedules and behavioral economic analyses. The differential effectiveness of preferred stimuli in treating destructive behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement also was examined. Results showed that one of two stimuli was associated with more responding under increasing schedule requirements for the 4 participants. Furthermore, stimuli associated with more responding under increasing schedule requirements generally were more effective in treating destructive behavior than stimuli associated with less responding. These data suggest that progressive-ratio schedules and behavioral economic analyses may be useful for developing a new technology for reinforcer identification. From a clinical perspective, these results suggest that two reinforcers may be similarly effective for low-effort tasks and differentially effective for high-effort tasks. PMID:11421308

The Fuzzy Logic Expert System Scheduler (FLES) is a unique, on-line, interactive shop floor scheduler that is designed to produce detailed, realistic schedules for day-to-day production management. The user can exercise the control of FLES to produce scheduling assignments over short or long term scheduling horizons or to simulate different plant capacity conditions to analyze their effect on future work plans. The unique and proprietary feature of FLES is its `Decision Engine', a fuzzy knowledge base system that models the reasoning process of a human expert is used to give job releasing and job dispatching decisions. Expert knowledge in terms of fuzzy production rules represented by the use of linguistic variables. The values of these linguistic variables are defined by context dependent fuzzy sets whose meanings are specified by graded membership functions.

NASA's Office of Independent Program and Cost Evaluation (IPCE) has established a number of initiatives to improve its cost and schedule estimating capabilities. 12One of these initiatives has resulted in the JPL developed NASA Instrument Cost Model. NICM is a cost and schedule estimator that contains: A system level cost estimation tool; a subsystem level cost estimation tool; a database of cost and technical parameters of over 140 previously flown remote sensing and in-situ instruments; a schedule estimator; a set of rules to estimate cost and schedule by life cycle phases (B/C/D); and a novel tool for developing joint probability distributions for cost and schedule risk (Joint Confidence Level (JCL)). This paper describes the development and use of NICM, including the data normalization processes, data mining methods (cluster analysis, principal components analysis, regression analysis and bootstrap cross validation), the estimating equations themselves and a demonstration of the NICM tool suite.

We describe a timeline-based scheduling algorithm developed for mission operations of the EO-1 earth observing satellite. We first describe the range of operational constraints for operations focusing on maneuver and thermal constraints that cannot be modeled in typical planner/schedulers. We then describe a greedy heuristic scheduling algorithm and compare its performance to both the prior scheduling algorithm - documenting an over 50% increase in scenes scheduled with estimated value of millions of dollars US. We also compare to a relaxed optimal scheduler showing that the greedy scheduler produces schedules with scene count within 15% of an upper bound on optimal schedules.

The recent development of a new generation of automated radionuclide assay equipment in our facility requires embedded software at each machine for the scheduling of tasks. The execution time requirements of real-time embedded software limit the complexity of the scheduler design. By representing the scheduling problem properly, a simple backpropagation neural network performs the scheduling function within the imposed requirements. Operational tests have demonstrated that the neural network scheduler has met all development goals and is superior to the previous approaches. 3 refs., 1 tab.

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Establishment of work schedules. 610.121... DUTY Weekly and Daily Scheduling of Work Work Schedules § 610.121 Establishment of work schedules. (a... schedule the work of his or her employees to accomplish the mission of the agency. The head of an...

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Establishment of work schedules. 610.121... DUTY Weekly and Daily Scheduling of Work Work Schedules § 610.121 Establishment of work schedules. (a... schedule the work of his or her employees to accomplish the mission of the agency. The head of an...

This report concerning salary schedules at institutions of higher education describes the contents of the schedules, policies regarding schedule structure, minimum and maximum salaries, and increments. A listing of colleges and universities with their scheduled minimum and maximum salaries, and 4 examples of schedules are also included. (HS)

The construction schedule for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant and its evolution are described. The initial schedule basis, changes necessitated by the evaluation of the overall plant design, and constructability improvements that have been effected to assure adherence to the schedule are presented. The schedule structure and hierarchy are discussed, as are tools used to define, develop, and evaluate the schedule.

Cancer immunotherapy aims at stimulating the immune system to react against cancer stealth capabilities. It consists of repeatedly injecting small doses of a tumor-associated molecule one wants the immune system to recognize, until a consistent immune response directed against the tumor cells is observed. We have applied the theory of optimal control to the problem of finding the optimal schedule of injections of an immunotherapeutic agent against cancer. The method employed works for a general ODE system and can be applied to find the optimal protocol in a variety of clinical problems where the kinetics of the drug or treatment and its influence on the normal physiologic functions have been described by a mathematical model. We show that the choice of the cost function has dramatic effects on the kind of solution the optimization algorithm is able to find. This provides evidence that a careful ODE model and optimization schema must be designed by mathematicians and clinicians using their proper different perspectives.

A decision theoretic model was used to investigate the relative importance of risk level, radiation hazard, mammographic accuracy, and cost in mammographic screening decision. The model uses woman-specific medical and family history facts and clinic-specific information regarding mammographic accuracy and practice to profile both woman and clinic, and to formulate periodic screening recommendations. Model parameters were varied extensively to investigate the sensitivity of screening schedules to input values. Multivariate risk was estimated within the program using published data from the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project 5-year follow-up study. Radiation hazard estimates were developed from published radiation physics and radioepidemiologic risk data. Benchmark values for mammographic sensitivity and specificity under screening conditions were calculated from Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project data. Procedural costs used in the analysis were varied around values reflecting conditions at the Washington University Medical Center. Mortality advantages of early versus late breast cancer detection were accounted for using Health Insurance Plan of New York case survival rates. Results are compared with published screening policies to provide insight into implicit assumptions behind those policies. This analysis emphasizes the importance of accounting for variations in clinical accuracy under screening circumstances, in costs, in radiation exposure, and in woman-specific risk when recommending mammographic screening. PMID:3420070

Elderly people are more likely to develop severe infections diseases. Given the significant increase in the number of the elderly population, reducing the risk of infection by vaccination is a major preventive approach. The immunization schedule for 2014 in France yields, for the first time, vaccination recommendations for patients over 65 years. Tetanus-Diphtheria-Poliomyelitis vaccination is recommended to be given at the age of 65 years and then every 10 years, together with the pertussis vaccine to protect infants less than 6 months. Recommendation for vaccinations against seasonal influenza in autumn is maintained by the High Council for Public Health, which estimates that the population benefit persists despite the lower individual effectiveness in the elderly. The pneumococcal vaccine is recommended only in high-risk populations, and only once after the age 65. Zoster vaccine is recommended between 65 and 74, and the first year of its availability, can be proposed to elderly patients between 75 and 79 years. Vaccination in the elderly must be enhanced, and information about its advantages should be disseminated. PMID:26967928

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To analyze whether sociodemographic characteristics, consultations and care in special services are associated with scheduled infectious diseases appointments missed by people living with HIV. METHODS This cross-sectional and analytical study included 3,075 people living with HIV who had at least one scheduled appointment with an infectologist at a specialized health unit in 2007. A secondary data base from the Hospital Management & Information System was used. The outcome variable was missing a scheduled medical appointment. The independent variables were sex, age, appointments in specialized and available disciplines, hospitalizations at the Central Institute of the Clinical Hospital at the Faculdade de Medicina of the Universidade de São Paulo, antiretroviral treatment and change of infectologist. Crude and multiple association analysis were performed among the variables, with a statistical significance of p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS More than a third (38.9%) of the patients missed at least one of their scheduled infectious diseases appointments; 70.0% of the patients were male. The rate of missed appointments was 13.9%, albeit with no observed association between sex and absences. Age was inversely associated to missed appointment. Not undertaking anti-retroviral treatment, having unscheduled infectious diseases consultations or social services care and being hospitalized at the Central Institute were directly associated to missed appointments. CONCLUSIONS The Hospital Management & Information System proved to be a useful tool for developing indicators related to the quality of health care of people living with HIV. Other informational systems, which are often developed for administrative purposes, can also be useful for local and regional management and for evaluating the quality of care provided for patients living with HIV. PMID:26786472

MOPSS is a generic framework that can be configured on the fly to support a wide range of planning and scheduling applications. It is currently used to support seven missions at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in roles that include science planning, mission planning, and real-time control. Prior to MOPSS, each spacecraft project built its own planning and scheduling capability to plan satellite activities and communications and to create the commands to be uplinked to the spacecraft. This approach required creating a data repository for storing planning and scheduling information, building user interfaces to display data, generating needed scheduling algorithms, and implementing customized external interfaces. Complex scheduling problems that involved reacting to multiple variable situations were analyzed manually. Operators then used the results to add commands to the schedule. Each architecture was unique to specific satellite requirements. MOPSS is an expert system that automates mission operations and frees the flight operations team to concentrate on critical activities. It is easily reconfigured by the flight operations team as the mission evolves. The heart of the system is a custom object-oriented data layer mapped onto an Oracle relational database. The combination of these two technologies allows a user or system engineer to capture any type of scheduling or planning data in the system's generic data storage via a GUI.

Title 44 US Code, ``Public Printing and Documents,`` regulations issued by the General Service Administration (GSA) in 41 CFR Chapter 101, Subchapter B, ``Management and Use of Information and Records,`` and regulations issued by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 36 CFR Chapter 12, Subchapter B, ``Records Management,`` require each agency to prepare and issue a comprehensive records disposition schedule that contains the NARA approved records disposition schedules for records unique to the agency and contains the NARA`s General Records Schedules for records common to several or all agencies. The approved records disposition schedules specify the appropriate duration of retention and the final disposition for records created or maintained by the NRC. NUREG-0910, Rev. 3, contains ``NRC`s Comprehensive Records Disposition Schedule,`` and the original authorized approved citation numbers issued by NARA. Rev. 3 incorporates NARA approved changes and additions to the NRC schedules that have been implemented since the last revision dated March, 1992, reflects recent organizational changes implemented at the NRC, and includes the latest version of NARA`s General Records Schedule (dated August 1995).

Contemporary workflow management systems offer work-items to users through specific work-lists. Users select the work-items they will perform without having a specific schedule in mind. However, in many environments work needs to be scheduled and performed at particular times. For example, in hospitals many work-items are linked to appointments, e.g., a doctor cannot perform surgery without reserving an operating theater and making sure that the patient is present. One of the problems when applying workflow technology in such domains is the lack of calendar-based scheduling support. In this paper, we present an approach that supports the seamless integration of unscheduled (flow) and scheduled (schedule) tasks. Using CPN Tools we have developed a specification and simulation model for schedule-aware workflow management systems. Based on this a system has been realized that uses YAWL, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Outlook, and a dedicated scheduling service. The approach is illustrated using a real-life case study at the AMC hospital in the Netherlands. In addition, we elaborate on the experiences obtained when developing and implementing a system of this scale using formal techniques.

Remote sensing systems have expanded the set of capabilities available for and critical to national security. Cooperating, high-fidelity sensing systems and growing mission applications have exponentially increased the set of potential schedules. A definitive lack of advanced tools places an increased burden on operators, as planning and scheduling remain largely manual tasks. This is particularly true in time-critical planning activities where operators aim to accomplish a large number of missions through optimal utilization of single or multiple sensor systems. Automated scheduling through identification and comparison of alternative schedules remains a challenging problem applicable across all remote sensing systems. Previous approaches focused on a subset of sensor missions and do not consider ad-hoc tasking. We have begun development of a robust framework that leverages the Pyomo optimization modeling language for the design of a tool to assist sensor operators planning under the constraints of multiple concurrent missions and uncertainty. Our scheduling models have been formulated to address the stochastic nature of ad-hoc tasks inserted under a variety of scenarios. Operator experience is being leveraged to select appropriate model objectives. Successful development of the framework will include iterative development of high-fidelity mission models that consider and expose various schedule performance metrics. Creating this tool will aid time-critical scheduling by increasing planning efficiency, clarifying the value of alternative modalities uniquely provided by multi-sensor systems, and by presenting both sets of organized information to operators. Such a tool will help operators more quickly and fully utilize sensing systems, a high interest objective within the current remote sensing operations community. Preliminary results for mixed-integer programming formulations of a sensor scheduling problem will be presented. Assumptions regarding sensor geometry

The Mission Analysis Division of the Systems Analysis and Integration Laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center has developed a robust automatic scheduler which can produce detailed schedules for the multi-step activities required for payload operations on the Space Station. This scheduler, a part of the Expert Scheduling Program (ESP2), has five components: the bookkeeper, checker, loader, selector, and explainer. The bookkeeper maintains the usage profiles for nondepletable resources, consumables, equipment, crew, and the times of all the steps for the payload activities for several different schedules simultaneously. The checker searches the data maintained by the bookkeeper and finds times when the constraints of each step of an activity are satisfied. The loader is an expert system that uses the techniques of forward chaining, depth-first searching, and backtracking to manage the workings of the checker so that activities are placed in the schedule without violating constraints (such as crew, resources, and orbit opportunities). The checker searches the data maintained by the bookkeeper and finds times when the constraints of each step of an activity are satisfied. The loader is an expert system which uses the techniques of forward chaining, depth-first searching, and backtracking to manage the workings of the checker so that activities are placed in the schedule without violating the constraints. The selector has several methods of choosing the next activity for the loader to schedule. The explainer shows the user why an activity was or was not scheduled at a certain time; it offers a unique graphical explanation of how the expert system (the loader) works.

We consider the effects of parameter uncertainty on the optimal radiation schedule in the context of the linear-quadratic model. Our interest arises from the observation that if inter-patient variability in normal and tumor tissue radiosensitivity or sparing factor of the organs-at-risk (OAR) are not accounted for during radiation scheduling, the performance of the therapy may be strongly degraded or the OAR may receive a substantially larger dose than the allowable threshold. This paper proposes a stochastic radiation scheduling concept to incorporate inter-patient variability into the scheduling optimization problem. Our method is based on a probabilistic approach, where the model parameters are given by a set of random variables. Our probabilistic formulation ensures that our constraints are satisfied with a given probability, and that our objective function achieves a desired level with a stated probability. We used a variable transformation to reduce the resulting optimization problem to two dimensions. We showed that the optimal solution lies on the boundary of the feasible region and we implemented a branch and bound algorithm to find the global optimal solution. We demonstrated how the configuration of optimal schedules in the presence of uncertainty compares to optimal schedules in the absence of uncertainty (conventional schedule). We observed that in order to protect against the possibility of the model parameters falling into a region where the conventional schedule is no longer feasible, it is required to avoid extremal solutions, i.e. a single large dose or very large total dose delivered over a long period. Finally, we performed numerical experiments in the setting of head and neck tumors including several normal tissues to reveal the effect of parameter uncertainty on optimal schedules and to evaluate the sensitivity of the solutions to the choice of key model parameters.

Scheduling Operations staff at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) has evolved from 5 shifts/week for commissioning operations in 1992 to the present 24 hour/day, 21 shift coverage as the ALS went to full operation for users. A number of schedules were developed and implemented in an effort to accommodate changing ALS shift coverage requirements. The present work schedule and the lessons learned, address a number of issues that are useful to any facility that is operating 24 hours/day, 7 days/week.

Planning research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has often focused on problems where there are cascading levels of action choice and complex interactions between actions. In contrast. Scheduling research has focused on much larger problems where there is little action choice, but the resulting ordering problem is hard. In this paper, we give an overview of M planning and scheduling techniques, focusing on their similarities, differences, and limitations. We also argue that many difficult practical problems lie somewhere between planning and scheduling, and that neither area has the right set of tools for solving these vexing problems.

Program development on parallel machines can be a nightmare of scheduling headaches. We have developed a portable time sharing mechanism to handle the problem of scheduling gangs of processes. User programs and their gangs of processes are put to sleep and awakened by the gang scheduler to provide a time sharing environment. Time quantum are adjusted according to priority queues and a system of fair share accounting. The initial platform for this software is the 128 processor BBN TC2000 in use in the Massively Parallel Computing Initiative at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The Schedule Organizer, SO (COSMIC Program MSC-21525), Schedule Tracker, ST (COSMIC Program MSC-21526), and Schedule Report Generator, SRG, are programs that manipulate data base files in ways that are advantageous to scheduling applications. Originally designed for the Space Shuttle flight schedule, the program can be easily modified for other scheduling situations. Schedule Organizer provides a simple method for generating distribution lists. These distribution lists contain readers' names for each task schedule defined by the input files. Schedule Tracker provides an effective method for tracking tasks that are 'past due' and/or 'near term'. ST generates reports for each responsible staff member with one or more assigned tasks that fall within the two listed categories. This enables an engineering manager to monitor tasks assigned to staff by running ST on a weekly basis. ST only lists tasks on reports that have become past due or are schedule for recent completion (near term). Schedule Reports Generator provides a simple method for generating periodic schedule reports. SRG enables an engineering manager to monitor tasks assigned to staff members on a weekly basis. SRG sorts three types of reports using one or more data fields as sort keys. One type is sorted using the calendar year as the primary key and the end date as the secondary key. Another type is sorted by flight number. A third type of report, Waterfall plots, is also generated by SRG using the end date as the sorting key. SRG requires as input a single file or two concatenated files with up to 400 single line entries. The user constructs the input file by using the LSE editor VAX utility prior to the execution of the program. The user is able to modify the current functional description text lines just displayed. ST and SRG use the same data base file as input. The common data base file has a maximum number of 400 entries. The time span of all three programs is nineteen months. Both of these maximum

Job scheduling is a deceptively complex subfield of computer science. The highly combinatorial nature of the problem, which is NP-complete in nearly all cases, requires a scheduling program to intelligently transverse an immense search tree to create the best possible schedule in a minimal amount of time. In addition, the program must continually make adjustments to the initial schedule when faced with last-minute user requests, cancellations, unexpected device failures, quests, cancellations, unexpected device failures, etc. A good scheduler must be quick, flexible, and efficient, even at the expense of generating slightly less-than-optimal schedules. The Space Communication Scheduler (SCS) is an intelligent rule-based scheduling system. SCS is an adaptive deadline scheduler which allocates modular communications resources to meet an ordered set of user-specified job requests on board the NASA Space Station. SCS uses pattern matching techniques to detect potential conflicts through algorithmic and heuristic means. As a result, the system generates and maintains high density schedules without relying heavily on backtracking or blind search techniques. SCS is suitable for many common real-world applications.

... scheduled processes. The scheduled process shall be established by a qualified person who has expert knowledge acquired through appropriate training and experience in the acidification and processing...

... scheduled processes. The scheduled process shall be established by a qualified person who has expert knowledge acquired through appropriate training and experience in the acidification and processing...

Computational grids have the potential for solving large-scale scientific problems using heterogeneous and geographically distributed resources. However, a number of major technical hurdles must be overcome before this potential can be realized. One problem that is critical to effective utilization of computational grids is the efficient scheduling of jobs. This work addresses this problem by describing and evaluating a grid scheduling architecture and three job migration algorithms. The architecture is scalable and does not assume control of local site resources. The job migration policies use the availability and performance of computer systems, the network bandwidth available between systems, and the volume of input and output data associated with each job. An extensive performance comparison is presented using real workloads from leading computational centers. The results, based on several key metrics, demonstrate that the performance of our distributed migration algorithms is significantly greater than that of a local scheduling framework and comparable to a non-scalable global scheduling approach.

This document contains the CY2000 schedules for the routine collection of samples for the Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) and Drinking Water Monitoring Project. Each section includes sampling locations, sample types, and analyses to be performed.

Computational grids have the potential for solving large-scale scientific problems using heterogeneous and geographically distributed resources. However, a number of major technical hurdles must be overcome before this potential can be realized. One problem that is critical to effective utilization of computational grids is the efficient scheduling of jobs. This work addresses this problem by describing and evaluating a grid scheduling architecture and three job migration algorithms. The architecture is scalable and does not assume control of local site resources. The job migration policies use the availability and performance of computer systems, the network bandwidth available between systems, and the volume of input and output data associated with each job. An extensive performance comparison is presented using real workloads from leading computational centers. The results, based on several key metrics, demonstrate that the performance of our distributed migration algorithms is significantly greater than that of a local scheduling framework and comparable to a non-scalable global scheduling approach.

The Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications of the Committee on Science and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives (99th Congress) met on 21-23 May 1985 to perform a cost, schedule and performance review of the Space Shuttle/Centaur Program. Excessive costs, amounting to more than 100 million dollars were attributed by the Subcommittee to government indecision, contracting delays, launch schedule pressures, and breakdowns in engineering and management systems at NASA and the contractor. The Centaur G-Prime vehicles were to be available for the Galileo Mission to Jupiter and the International Solar Polar Mission, but scheduled for launch in May - June 1986. However, this schedule cannot be met, and the next Jupiter launch window is not until July 1987.

This paper presents a general learning method for dynamically selecting between repair heuristics in an iterative repair scheduling system. The system employs a version of explanation-based learning called Plausible Explanation-Based Learning (PEBL) that uses multiple examples to confirm conjectured explanations. The basic approach is to conjecture contradictions between a heuristic and statistics that measure the quality of the heuristic. When these contradictions are confirmed, a different heuristic is selected. To motivate the utility of this approach we present an empirical evaluation of the performance of a scheduling system with respect to two different repair strategies. We show that the scheduler that learns to choose between the heuristics outperforms the same scheduler with any one of two heuristics alone.

In the applications, one common way to design a control system for a nonlinear plant is to localize its behavior along lines of operation specified by the plant manufacturer, to develop linear multi-variable controls for these localizations, and to schedule those controls with key plant variables which vary smoothly along operating lines. An important part of practical design lore, the art of controller scheduling has received little modern attention from the conceptual point of view. This paper describes four basic types of scheduling questions and outlines some of the theoretical issues associated with them. Schedules are considered in terms of state equations; however, some relations with the input/output description are discussed, together with an analysis of the effects on the overall configuration of approximations made to the individual subsystems.

... requirements of § 51.262(a) of this chapter are not met since the compliance schedules for sources of nitrogen oxides extend over a period of more than 18 months and periodic increments of progress are not...

... requirements of § 51.262(a) of this chapter are not met since the compliance schedules for sources of nitrogen oxides extend over a period of more than 18 months and periodic increments of progress are not...

The functioning of the Deep Space Network Operations Scheduling, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CA is reviewed. The primary objectives of the Operations Scheduling are: to schedule the worldwide global allocation of ground communications, tracking facilities, and equipment; and to provide deep space telecommunications for command, tracking, telemetry, and control in support of flight mission operations and tests. Elements of the earth set are Deep Space Stations (DSS) which provide the telecommunications link between the earth and spacecraft; NASA Communications Network; Network Data Processing Area; Network Operations Control Area which provides operational direction to the DSS; Mission Control and Computing systems; and Mission Support areas which provide flight control of the spacecraft. Elements of the space set include mission priorities and requirements which determine the spacecraft queue for allocating network resources. Scheduling is discussed in terms of long-range (3 years), mid-range (8 weeks), and short-range (2 weeks).

... later than October 1, 1973, of his intent to utilize either low-sulfur fuel or stack gas desulfurization... utilize stack gas desulfurization shall be subject to the compliance schedule in paragraph (b)(2) of...

Public transport driver scheduling problems are well known to be NP-hard. Although some mathematically based methods are being used in the transport industry, there is room for improvement. A hybrid approach incorporating a genetic algorithm (GA) is presented. The role of the GA is to derive a small selection of good shifts to seed a greedy schedule construction heuristic. A group of shifts called a relief chain is identified and recorded. The relief chain is then inherited by the offspring and used by the GA for schedule construction. The new approach has been tested using real-life data sets, some of which represent very large problem instances. The results are generally better than those compiled by experienced schedulers and are comparable to solutions found by integer linear programming (ILP). In some cases, solutions were obtained when the ILP failed within practical computational limits. PMID:11709104

In many applications of genetic algorithms, there is a tradeoff between speed and accuracy in fitness evaluations when evaluations use numerical methods with varying discretization. In these types of applications, the cost and accuracy vary from discretization errors when implicit or explicit quadrature is used to estimate the function evaluations. This paper examines discretization scheduling, or how to vary the discretization within the genetic algorithm in order to use the least amount of computation time for a solution of a desired quality. The effectiveness of discretization scheduling can be determined by comparing its computation time to the computation time of a GA using a constant discretization. There are three ingredients for the discretization scheduling: population sizing, estimated time for each function evaluation and predicted convergence time analysis. Idealized one- and two-dimensional experiments and an inverse groundwater application illustrate the computational savings to be achieved from using discretization scheduling. PMID:16156928

Aiming at the static task scheduling problems in heterogeneous environment, a heuristic task scheduling algorithm named HCPPEFT is proposed. In task prioritizing phase, there are three levels of priority in the algorithm to choose task. First, the critical tasks have the highest priority, secondly the tasks with longer path to exit task will be selected, and then algorithm will choose tasks with less predecessors to schedule. In resource selection phase, the algorithm is selected task duplication to reduce the interresource communication cost, besides forecasting the impact of an assignment for all children of the current task permits better decisions to be made in selecting resources. The algorithm proposed is compared with STDH, PEFT, and HEFT algorithms through randomly generated graphs and sets of task graphs. The experimental results show that the new algorithm can achieve better scheduling performance. PMID:25254244

Active runway scheduling involves scheduling departures for takeoffs and arrivals for runway crossing subject to numerous constraints. This paper evaluates the effect of uncertainty on a deterministic runway scheduler. The evaluation is done against a first-come- first-serve scheme. In particular, the sequence from a deterministic scheduler is frozen and the times adjusted to satisfy all separation criteria; this approach is tested against FCFS. The comparison is done for both system performance (throughput and system delay) and predictability, and varying levels of congestion are considered. The modeling of uncertainty is done in two ways: as equal uncertainty in availability at the runway as for all aircraft, and as increasing uncertainty for later aircraft. Results indicate that the deterministic approach consistently performs better than first-come-first-serve in both system performance and predictability.

As Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) initiated a Core Business Hours program, it became a challenge to ensure that the hundreds of systems campus wide were operating within their programmed schedules. Therefore, a collaborative exchange between PNNL operations and PNNL researchers developing the Decision Support for Operations and Maintenance (DSOM) software package was initiated to create a tool to solve this problem. This new DSOM tool verifies systems are operating within scheduled operation times by polling Building Automation and Control Network (BACnet) identifiers of systems’ on/off or command statuses. The tool records the time spent in operation state (ON) and totalizes each system over a rolling 7-day period, highlighting systems that are running over the scheduled hours. This snapshot view allows building management to look quickly at the entire campus to ensure that systems are not operating beyond their scheduled hours.

Planners of a new Arizona school used the district's existing computerized master scheduling program to identify instructional spaces needed. Total classroom needs by subject were translated into total square footage requirements. (MLF)

Summary Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines can prevent multiple cancers in women and men. Difficulties in the cost and completion of the three-dose vaccine series have led to considerations of alternative dose schedules. In clinical trials, three doses given within a 12-month period versus the standard six-month period yielded comparable results, and immunogenicity appears comparable with two doses in adolescent females compared to the three-dose series in adult females. While the data are generally supportive of moving to a two-dose vaccine schedule among young female adolescents, the adoption of a two-dose vaccine schedule still poses a potential risk to the strength and longevity of the immune response. Public health authorities implementing a two-dose vaccine schedule should devise risk management strategies to minimize the potential impact on cancer prevention. PMID:25001893

NASA's Space Network (SN) provides telecommunications and tracking services to low earth orbiting spacecraft. One proposal for improving resource allocation and automating conflict resolution for the SN is the concept of flexible scheduling. In this concept, each Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) will possess a Space Network User POCC Interface (SNUPI) to support the development and management of flexible requests. Flexible requests express the flexibility, constraints, and repetitious nature of the user's communications requirements. Flexible scheduling is expected to improve SN resource utilization and user satisfaction, as well as reduce the effort to produce and maintain a schedule. A prototype testbed has been developed to better understand flexible scheduling as it applies to the SN. This testbed consists of a SNUPI workstation, an SN scheduler, and a flexible request language that conveys information between the two systems. All three are being evaluated by operations personnel. Benchmark testing is being conducted on the scheduler to quantify the productivity improvements achieved with flexible requests.

Purpose: To determine if two different doses of intravitreal sirolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, can decrease inflammation and is safe in eyes with non-infectious posterior, intermediate, or panuveitis in the Sirolimus as a Therapeutic Approach UVEitis: Protocol-2 (SAVE-2) Study. Methods: SAVE-2 is a prospective randomized, phase II, open-label interventional clinical trial conducted at 4 clinical centers in the United States. Eligible subjects were randomized into one of two treatments. Group 1 received 440µg of intravitreal sirolimus in study eyes on days 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150; group 2 received 880µg of intravitreal sirolimus on days 0, 60, and 120. Fellow eyes were also eligible to receive sirolimus (of opposite dose to that of study eye). Primary endpoint of the study was at month 6 (M6). Results: 24 subjects have been randomized in SAVE-2 and are included in the analysis. Vitreous haze decreased by ≥2 steps in 63.6% and 50% of patients in groups 1 and 2, respectively at M6 (p=0.695). Mean change in best-corrected visual acuity for subjects was +3.66 and −2.91 ETDRS letters in group 1 and 2, respectively. Among subjects with macular edema at baseline (n=13), the mean change in foveal thickness was −89.42µm in group 1 and +81.5µm in group 2 at M6. Conclusions: Both low and high doses of intravitreal sirolimus were found to decrease vitreous haze in eyes with non-infectious uveitis. Low dose (440µg) sirolimus administered monthly may be more efficacious in reducing uveitic macular edema than high dose (880µg) administered every 2 months.

The Advanced Reactors Transition (ART) Resource Loaded Schedule (RLS) provides a cost and schedule baseline for managing the project elements within the ART Program. The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) activities are delineated through the end of FY 2000, assuming continued standby. The Nuclear Energy (NE) Legacies and Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor (PRTR) activities are delineated through the end of the deactivation process. This document reflects the 1 Oct 1999 baseline.

Request Generation II (ReGe II) is a PC-based prototype knowledge based system intented to assist USAF personnel in planning and scheduling satellite operations for their Mission Control Complexes (MCC). It aids MCC personnel in producing weekly Program Action Plans (PAPs) for each of the satellite vehicles an MCC is responsible for monitoring and maintaining. The PAPs are input to the Resource Control Complex (RCC) which schedules all satellite support requests for usage of the network.

The IVS scheduled a special astrometric VLBI session for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA09) commemorating 400 years of optical astronomy and 40 years of VLBI. The IYA09 session is the most ambitious geodetic session to date in terms of network size, number of sources, and number of observations. We describe the process of designing, coordinating, scheduling, pre-session station checkout, correlating, and analyzing this session.

We present here a study for a scheduler which cooperates with the queueing system TORQUE and is tailored to the needs of a HEP-dominated large Grid site with around 10000 jobs slots. Triggered by severe scaling problems of MAUI, a scheduler, referred to as MYSCHED, was developed and put into operation. We discuss conceptional aspects as well as experiences after almost two years of running.

The Advanced Reactors Transition (ART) Resource Loaded Schedule (RLS) provides a cost and schedule baseline for managing the project elements within the ART Program. The Fast Flux Test Facility (FETF) activities are delineated through the end of FY 2000, assuming continued standby. The Nuclear Energy (NE) Legacies and Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor (PRTR) activities are delineated through the end of the deactivation process. This revision reflects the 19 Oct 1999 baseline.

One approach to avoid timing faults in hard, real-time systems is to make available intermediate, imprecise results produced by real-time processes. When a result of the desired quality cannot be produced in time, an imprecise result of acceptable quality produced before the deadline can be used. The problem of scheduling periodic jobs to meet deadlines on a system that provides the necessary programming language primitives and run-time support for processes to return imprecise results is discussed. Since the scheduler may choose to terminate a task before it is completed, causing it to produce an acceptable but imprecise result, the amount of processor time assigned to any task in a valid schedule can be less than the amount of time required to complete the task. A meaningful formulation of the scheduling problem must take into account the overall quality of the results. Depending on the different types of undesirable effects caused by errors, jobs are classified as type N or type C. For type N jobs, the effects of errors in results produced in different periods are not cumulative. A reasonable performance measure is the average error over all jobs. Three heuristic algorithms that lead to feasible schedules with small average errors are described. For type C jobs, the undesirable effects of errors produced in different periods are cumulative. Schedulability criteria of type C jobs are discussed.

Scheduling observatory time to maximize both day-to-day science target integration time and the lifetime of the observatory is a formidable challenge. Furthermore, it is not a static problem. Of course, every schedule brings a new set of observations, but the boundaries of the problem change as well. As spacecraft ages, its capabilities may degrade. As in-flight experience grows, capabilities may expand. As observing programs are completed, the needs and expectations of the science community may evolve. Changes such as these impact the rules by which a mission scheduled. In eight years on orbit, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Mission Planning process has adapted to meet the challenge of maximizing day-to-day and mission lifetime science return, despite a consistently evolving set of scheduling constraints. The success of the planning team has been achieved, not through the use of complex algorithms and optimization routines, but through processes and home grown tools that help individuals make smart short term and long term Mission Planning decisions. This paper walks through the processes and tools used to plan and produce mission schedules for the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Nominal planning and scheduling, target of opportunity response, and recovery from on-board autonomous safing actions are all addressed. Evolution of tools and processes, best practices, and lessons learned are highlighted along the way.

Approximately five years ago scientists discovered that modern UNLX workstations connected with ethernet and fiber networks could provide enough computational performance to compete with the supercomputers. As this concept became increasingly popular, the need for distributed queuing and scheduler systems became apparent. Systems such as DQS from Florida State University were developed and worked very well. Today however, supercomputers such as Argonne National Laboratory`s IBM SP system can provide more CPU and networking speed than can be obtained from these networks of workstations. Nevertheless, because modern super computers look like clusters of workstations developers felt that the scheduling systems previously used on clusters of workstations should still apply. After trying to apply some of these scheduling systems to Argonne`s SP environment it became obvious that these two computer environments have very different scheduling needs. Recognizing this need, and realizing that no one has addressed it, we at Argonne developed a new scheduling system. The approach taken in creating this system was unique in that user input and interaction were encouraged throughout the development process. Thus a scheduler was built that actually works the way the users want it to.

Pigeons were exposed to multiple schedules in which an irregular repeating sequence of five stimulus components was correlated with the same reinforcement schedule throughout. Stable, idiosyncratic, response-rate differences developed across components. Components were rank-ordered by response rate; an approximately linear relation was found between rank order and the deviation of mean response rate from the overall mean rate. Nonzero slopes of this line were found for multiple fixed-interval and variable-time schedules and for multiple variable-interval schedules both when number of reinforcements was the same in all components and when it varied. The steepest function slopes were found in the variable schedules with relatively long interfood intervals and relatively short component durations. When just one stimulus was correlated with all components of a multiple variable-interval schedule, the slope of the line was close to zero. The results suggest that food-rate differences may be induced initially by different reactions to the stimuli and subsequently maintained by food. PMID:7069361

Pigeons were exposed to multiple schedules in which an irregular repeating sequence of five stimulus components was correlated with the same reinforcement schedule throughout. Stable, idiosyncratic, response-rate differences developed across components. Components were rank-ordered by response rate; an approximately linear relation was found between rank order and the deviation of mean response rate from the overall mean rate. Nonzero slopes of this line were found for multiple fixed-interval and variable-time schedules and for multiple variable-interval schedules both when number of reinforcements was the same in all components and when it varied. The steepest function slopes were found in the variable schedules with relatively long interfood intervals and relatively short component durations. When just one stimulus was correlated with all components of a multiple variable-interval schedule, the slope of the line was close to zero. The results suggest that food-rate differences may be induced initially by different reactions to the stimuli and subsequently maintained by food. PMID:7069361

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be a large infrared space observatory in orbit about the Sun-Earth second Lagrange Point. This paper provides an overview of the expected operational requirements imposed by the observatory's basic science activities (imaging, spectroscopy, coronography) and the operational issues associated with interleaving periodic engineering activities (Wave Front Sensing & Control activities, Momentum Unloads, and orbit Station Keeping) with the science observations. The planning and scheduling operations must maximize the overall science integration time while meeting the mission and observer specified constraints. The "Observation," "Visit," and Observation Template constructs are explained in the context of providing an interface to the Observer that provides the ability to specify complex observations, such as mosaics and cluster targets, while also minimizing specification errors and allowing planning and scheduling flexibility of the observations. The expected nominal planning and scheduling process including the creation and maintenance of the Long Range Plan (~1.25 year duration), the Short Term Schedules (~ three weeks), and the on-board Observation Plan (< 10 days) is described. The event-driven on-board operations of JWST and how the planning and scheduling process monitors and reacts to the onboard execution of the Observation Plan are described. Finally, the methods employed to allow for robust interfacing of scheduled real-time operations (for example, Station Keeping) with the Observation Plan and unplanned, but expected, modifications to the Observation Plan (for example, Target of Opportunity) are described.

Airlines' revenue generated from scheduled services account for the major share in the total revenue. As such, predicting airlines' total scheduled services revenue is of great importance both to the governments (in case of national airlines) and private airlines. This importance stems from the need to formulate future airline strategic management policies, determine government subsidy levels, and formulate governmental air transportation policies. The prediction of the airlines' total scheduled services revenue is dealt with in this paper. Four key components of airline's scheduled services are considered. These include revenues generated from passenger, cargo, mail, and excess baggage. By addressing the revenue generated from each schedule service separately, air transportation planners and designers arc able to enhance their ability to formulate specific strategies for each component. Estimation results clearly indicate that the four stochastic processes (scheduled services components) are represented by different Box-Jenkins ARIMA models. The results demonstrate the appropriateness of the developed models and their ability to provide air transportation planners with future information vital to the planning and design processes.

Airlines' revenue generated from scheduled services account for the major share in the total revenue. As such, predicting airlines' total scheduled services revenue is of great importance both to the governments (in case of national airlines) and private airlines. This importance stems from the need to formulate future airline strategic management policies, determine government subsidy levels, and formulate governmental air transportation policies. The prediction of the airlines' total scheduled services revenue is dealt with in this paper. Four key components of airline's scheduled services are considered. These include revenues generated from passenger, cargo, mail, and excess baggage. By addressing the revenue generated from each schedule service separately, air transportation planners and designers are able to enhance their ability to formulate specific strategies for each component. Estimation results clearly indicate that the four stochastic processes (scheduled services components) are represented by different Box-Jenkins ARIMA models. The results demonstrate the appropriateness of the developed models and their ability to provide air transportation planners with future information vital to the planning and design processes.

One of the goals for the Space Station is to achieve greater autonomy, and have less reliance on ground commanding than previous space missions. This means that the crew will have to take an active role in scheduling and rescheduling their activities onboard, perhaps working from preliminary schedules generated on the ground. Scheduling is a time intensive task, whether performed manually or automatically, so the best approach to solving onboard scheduling problems may involve crew members working with an interactive software scheduling package. A project is described which investigates a system that uses knowledge based techniques for the rescheduling of experiments within the Materials Technology Laboratory of the Space Station. Particular attention is paid to: (1) methods for rapid response rescheduling to accommodate unplanned changes in resource availability, (2) the nature of the interface to the crew, (3) the representation of the many types of data within the knowledge base, and (4) the possibility of applying rule-based and constraint-based reasoning methods to onboard activity scheduling.

Although scheduling multiple tasks in motor learning to maximize long-term retention of performance is of great practical importance in sports training and motor rehabilitation after brain injury, it is unclear how to do so. We propose here a novel theoretical approach that uses optimal control theory and computational models of motor adaptation to determine schedules that maximize long-term retention predictively. Using Pontryagin's maximum principle, we derived a control law that determines the trial-by-trial task choice that maximizes overall delayed retention for all tasks, as predicted by the state-space model. Simulations of a single session of adaptation with two tasks show that when task interference is high, there exists a threshold in relative task difficulty below which the alternating schedule is optimal. Only for large differences in task difficulties do optimal schedules assign more trials to the harder task. However, over the parameter range tested, alternating schedules yield long-term retention performance that is only slightly inferior to performance given by the true optimal schedules. Our results thus predict that in a large number of learning situations wherein tasks interfere, intermixing tasks with an equal number of trials is an effective strategy in enhancing long-term retention. PMID:26890347

Excessive time was being spent by the emergency department (ED) staff, head nurse, and unit secretary on a complex 6-week manual self-scheduling system. This issue, plus inevitable errors and staff dissatisfaction, resulted in a manager-lead initiative to automate elements of the scheduling process using Microsoft Excel. The implementation of this initiative included: common coding of all 8-hour and 12-hour shifts, with each 4-hour period represented by a cell; the creation of a 6-week master schedule using the "count-if" function of Excel based on current staffing guidelines; staff time-off requests then entered by the department secretary; the head nurse, with staff input, then fine-tuned the schedule to provide even unit coverage. Outcomes of these changes included an increase in staff satisfaction, time saved by the head nurse, and staff work time saved because there was less arguing about the schedule. Ultimately, the automated self-scheduling method was expanded to the entire 700-bed hospital. PMID:10711163

The NASA Fatigue Management Team is developing recommendations for managing fatigue during travel and for shift work operations, as Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Circadian Desynchrony in ISS Operations. The Guidelines provide the International Space Station (ISS ) flight surgeons and other operational clinicians with evidence-based recommendations for mitigating fatigue and other factors related to sleep loss and circadian desynchronization. As much international travel is involved both before and after flight, the guidelines provide recommendations for: pre-flight training, in-flight operations, and post-flight rehabilitation. The objective of is to standardize the process by which care is provided to crewmembers, ground controllers, and other support personnel such as trainers, when overseas travel or schedule shifting is required. Proper scheduling of countermeasures - light, darkness, melatonin, diet, exercise, and medications - is the cornerstone for facilitating circadian adaptation, improving sleep, enhancing alertness, and optimizing performance. The Guidelines provide, among other things, prescribed travel schedules that outline the specific implementation of these mitigation strategies. Each travel schedule offers evidence based protocols for properly using the NASA identified countermeasures for fatigue. This presentation will describe the travel implementation schedules and how these can be used to alleviate the effects of jet lag and/or schedule shifts.

The Flight Projects Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is developing a new planning and scheduling environment and a new scheduling algorithm to enable a paradigm shift in planning and scheduling concepts. Over the past 33 years Marshall has developed and evolved a paradigm for generating payload timelines for Skylab, Spacelab, various other Shuttle payloads, and the International Space Station. The current paradigm starts by collecting the requirements, called "tasks models," from the scientists and technologists for the tasks that they want to be done. Because of shortcomings in the current modeling schema, some requirements are entered as notes. Next a cadre with knowledge of vehicle and hardware modifies these models to encompass and be compatible with the hardware model; again, notes are added when the modeling schema does not provide a better way to represent the requirements. Finally, another cadre further modifies the models to be compatible with the scheduling engine. This last cadre also submits the models to the scheduling engine or builds the timeline manually to accommodate requirements that are expressed in notes. A future paradigm would provide a scheduling engine that accepts separate science models and hardware models. The modeling schema would have the capability to represent all the requirements without resorting to notes. Furthermore, the scheduling engine would not require that the models be modified to account for the capabilities (limitations) of the scheduling engine. The enabling technology under development at Marshall has three major components. (1) A new modeling schema allows expressing all the requirements of the tasks without resorting to notes or awkward contrivances. The chosen modeling schema is both maximally expressive and easy to use. It utilizes graphics methods to show hierarchies of task constraints and networks of temporal relationships. (2) A new scheduling algorithm automatically schedules the models

This paper examines the relationship between schedule delays and cost overruns on complex projects. It is generally accepted by many project practitioners that cost overruns are directly related to schedule delays. But what does "directly related to" actually mean? Some reasons or root causes for schedule delays and associated cost overruns are obvious, if only in hindsight. For example, unrealistic estimates, supply chain difficulties, insufficient schedule margin, technical problems, scope changes, or the occurrence of risk events can negatively impact schedule performance. Other factors driving schedule delays and cost overruns may be less obvious and more difficult to quantify. Examples of these less obvious factors include project complexity, flawed estimating assumptions, over-optimism, political factors, "black swan" events, or even poor leadership and communication. Indeed, is it even possible the schedule itself could be a source of delay and subsequent cost overrun? Through literature review, surveys of project practitioners, and the authors' own experience on NASA programs and projects, the authors will categorize and examine the various factors affecting the relationship between project schedule delays and cost growth. The authors will also propose some ideas for organizations to consider to help create an awareness of the factors which could cause or influence schedule delays and associated cost growth on complex projects.

An enumeration algorithm is presented for solving a scheduling problem similar to the single machine job shop problem with sequence dependent setup times. The scheduling problem differs from the job shop problem in two ways. First, its objective is to select an optimum subset of the available tasks to be performed during a fixed period of time. Secondly, each task scheduled is constrained to occur within its particular scheduling window. The algorithm is currently being used to develop typical observational timelines for a telescope that will be operated in earth orbit. Computational times associated with timeline development are presented.

Few studies have evaluated ways to thin punishment schedules. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using variable ratio (VR) schedules to thin the time-out schedule gradually. Warnings were used in some conditions to assist potentially with schedule thinning, but this analysis was limited. Participants were 3 young students who…

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Establishment of work schedules. 610.121... DUTY Weekly and Daily Scheduling of Work Work Schedules § 610.121 Establishment of work schedules. (a..., and the 2 days outside the basic workweek are consecutive; (3) The working hours in each day in...

In an effort to demonstrate the efficacy of automated planning and scheduling techniques for large missions, we have adapted ASPEN (Activity Scheduling and Planning Environment) [1] and CLASP (Compressed Large-scale Activity Scheduling and Planning) [2] to the domain of scheduling high-level science goals into conflict-free operations plans for Titan encounters by the Cassini spacecraft.

Food-deprived rats in Experiment 1 responded to one of two tandem schedules that were, with equal probability, associated with a sample lever. The tandem schedules' initial links were different random-interval schedules. Their values were adjusted to approximate equality in time to completing each tandem schedule's response requirements. The…

... 12 Banks and Banking 7 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Scheduling and prehearing conferences. 1780.33... Proceedings § 1780.33 Scheduling and prehearing conferences. (a) Scheduling conference. Within 30 days of... time and place prior to the hearing or to confer by telephone for the purpose of scheduling the...

... 12 Banks and Banking 7 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Scheduling and prehearing conferences. 908.53....53 Scheduling and prehearing conferences. (a) Scheduling conference. Within thirty (30) days of... specified time and place prior to the hearing or to confer by telephone for the purpose of scheduling...

... 12 Banks and Banking 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Scheduling and prehearing conferences. 509.31... Scheduling and prehearing conferences. (a) Scheduling conference. Within 30 days of service of the notice or... prior to the hearing or to confer by telephone for the purpose of scheduling the course and conduct...

This publication focuses on block scheduling. Alternative scheduling models--usually called "block scheduling" because they involve blocks of time for student learning--restructure the school day. Schools may adopt block scheduling to create more productive and personal relationships among teachers and students, to design challenging curricula…

Environmental Sensor Networks are a new way of monitoring the environment. They comprise autonomous sensor nodes in the environment that record real-time data, which is retrieved, analyzed, integrated with other data sets (e.g. satellite images, GIS, process models) and ultimately lead to scientific discoveries. Sensor networks must operate within time and resource constraints. Sensors have limited onboard memory, energy, computational power, communications windows and communications bandwidth. The value of data will depend on when, where and how it was collected, how detailed the data is, how long it takes to integrate the data, and how important the data was to the original scientific question. Planning and scheduling of sensor networks is necessary for effective, safe operations in the face of these constraints. For example, power bus limitations may preclude sensors from simultaneously collecting data and communicating without damaging the sensor; planners and schedulers can ensure these operations are ordered so that they do not happen simultaneously. Planning and scheduling can also ensure best use of the sensor network to maximize the value of collected science data. For example, if data is best recorded using a particular camera angle but it is costly in time and energy to achieve this, planners and schedulers can search for times when time and energy are available to achieve the optimal camera angle. Planning and scheduling can handle uncertainty in the problem specification; planners can be re-run when new information is made available, or can generate plans that include contingencies. For example, if bad weather may prevent the collection of data, a contingent plan can check lighting conditions and turn off data collection to save resources if lighting is not ideal. Both mobile and immobile sensors can benefit from planning and scheduling. For example, data collection on otherwise passive sensors can be halted to preserve limited power and memory

An heuristic approach to incremental and reactive scheduling is described. Incremental scheduling is the process of modifying an existing schedule if the initial schedule does not meet its stated initial goals. Reactive scheduling occurs in near real-time in response to changes in available resources or the occurrence of targets of opportunity. Only minor changes are made during both incremental and reactive scheduling because a goal of re-scheduling procedures is to minimally impact the schedule. The described heuristic search techniques, which are employed by the Request Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE), a prototype generic scheduler, efficiently approximate the cost of reaching a goal from a given state and effective mechanisms for controlling search.

This final report summarizes research performed under NASA contract NCC 2-531 toward generalization of constraint-based scheduling theories and techniques for application to space telescope observation scheduling problems. Our work into theories and techniques for solution of this class of problems has led to the development of the Heuristic Scheduling Testbed System (HSTS), a software system for integrated planning and scheduling. Within HSTS, planning and scheduling are treated as two complementary aspects of the more general process of constructing a feasible set of behaviors of a target system. We have validated the HSTS approach by applying it to the generation of observation schedules for the Hubble Space Telescope. This report summarizes the HSTS framework and its application to the Hubble Space Telescope domain. First, the HSTS software architecture is described, indicating (1) how the structure and dynamics of a system is modeled in HSTS, (2) how schedules are represented at multiple levels of abstraction, and (3) the problem solving machinery that is provided. Next, the specific scheduler developed within this software architecture for detailed management of Hubble Space Telescope operations is presented. Finally, experimental performance results are given that confirm the utility and practicality of the approach.

Preference for working on variable schedules and temporal discrimination were simultaneously examined in two experiments using a discrete-trial, concurrent-chains arrangement with fixed interval (FI) and random interval (RI) terminal links. The random schedule was generated by first sampling a probability distribution after the programmed delay to…

As humankind embarks on longer space missions farther from home, the requirements and environments for scheduling the activities performed on these missions are changing. As we begin to prepare for these missions it is appropriate to evaluate the merits and applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. Scheduling engines temporally arrange tasks onto a timeline so that all constraints and objectives are met and resources are not overbooked. Scheduling engines used to schedule space missions fall into three general categories: batch, mixed-initiative, and incremental. This paper presents an assessment of the engine types, a discussion of the impact of human exploration of the moon and Mars on planning and scheduling, and the applicability of the different types of scheduling engines. This paper will pursue the hypothesis that incremental scheduling engines may have a place in the new environment; they have the potential to reduce cost, to improve the satisfaction of those who execute or benefit from a particular timeline (the customers), and to allow astronauts to plan their own tasks.

This final report summarizes research performed under NASA contract NCC 2-531 toward generalization of constraint-based scheduling theories and techniques for application to space telescope observation scheduling problems. Our work into theories and techniques for solution of this class of problems has led to the development of the Heuristic Scheduling Testbed System (HSTS), a software system for integrated planning and scheduling. Within HSTS, planning and scheduling are treated as two complementary aspects of the more general process of constructing a feasible set of behaviors of a target system. We have validated the HSTS approach by applying it to the generation of observation schedules for the Hubble Space Telescope. This report summarizes the HSTS framework and its application to the Hubble Space Telescope domain. First, the HSTS software architecture is described, indicating (1) how the structure and dynamics of a system is modeled in HSTS, (2) how schedules are represented at multiple levels of abstraction, and (3) the problem solving machinery that is provided. Next, the specific scheduler developed within this software architecture for detailed management of Hubble Space Telescope operations is presented. Finally, experimental performance results are given that confirm the utility and practicality of the approach.

... action is based on a recommendation from the Assistant Secretary for Health of the Department of Health... classified into one of five schedules based upon their potential for abuse, their currently accepted medical... (Schedule III). According to the HHS, based on results from the clinical study with recreational drug...

Grid computing facilitates the resource sharing through the administrative domains which are geographically distributed. Scheduling in a distributed heterogeneous environment is intrinsically very hard because of the heterogeneous nature of resource collection. Makespan and tardiness are two different measures of scheduling, and many of the previous researches concentrated much on reduction of makespan, which measures the machine utilization. In this paper, we propose a hybrid scheduling algorithm for scheduling independent grid tasks with the objective of reducing total weighted tardiness of grid tasks. Tardiness is to measure the due date performance, which has a direct impact on cost for executing the jobs. In this paper we propose BG_ATC algorithm which is a combination of best gap (BG) search and Apparent Tardiness Cost (ATC) indexing algorithm. Furthermore, we implemented these two algorithms in two different phases of the scheduling process. In addition to that, the comparison was made on results with various benchmark algorithms and the experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms the benchmark algorithms. PMID:26543897

Uncertain hydrological impacts of climate change, population growth and institutional changes pose a major challenge to planning of water supply systems. Planners seek optimal portfolios of supply and demand management schemes but also when to activate assets whilst considering many system goals and plausible futures. Incorporation of scheduling into the planning under uncertainty problem strongly increases its complexity. We investigate some approaches to scheduling with many-objective heuristic search. We apply a multi-scenario many-objective scheduling approach to the Thames River basin water supply system planning problem in the UK. Decisions include which new supply and demand schemes to implement, at what capacity and when. The impact of different system uncertainties on scheme implementation schedules are explored, i.e. how the choice of future scenarios affects the search process and its outcomes. The activation of schemes is influenced by the occurrence of extreme hydrological events in the ensemble of plausible scenarios and other factors. The approach and results are compared with a previous study where only the portfolio problem is addressed (without scheduling).

At the Honeywell Technology Center (HTC), we have been working on a scheduling problem related to commercial avionics. This application is large, complex, and hard to solve. To be a little more concrete: 'large' means almost 20,000 activities, 'complex' means several activity types, periodic behavior, and assorted types of temporal constraints, and 'hard to solve' means that we have been unable to eliminate backtracking through the use of search heuristics. At this point, we can generate solutions, where solutions exist, or report failure and sometimes why the system failed. To the best of our knowledge, this is among the largest and most complex scheduling problems to have been solved as a constraint satisfaction problem, at least that has appeared in the published literature. This abstract is a preliminary report on what we have done and how. In the next section, we present our approach to treating scheduling as a constraint satisfaction problem. The following sections present the application in more detail and describe how we solve scheduling problems in the application domain. The implemented system makes use of Ginsberg's Dynamic Backtracking algorithm, with some minor extensions to improve its utility for scheduling. We describe those extensions and the performance of the resulting system. The paper concludes with some general remarks, open questions and plans for future work.

We consider the class of integrated network design and scheduling problems. These problems focus on selecting and scheduling operations that will change the characteristics of a network, while being speci cally concerned with the performance of the network over time. Motivating applications of INDS problems include infrastructure restoration after extreme events and building humanitarian distribution supply chains. While similar models have been proposed, no one has performed an extensive review of INDS problems from their complexity, network and scheduling characteristics, information, and solution methods. We examine INDS problems under a parallel identical machine scheduling environment where the performance of the network is evaluated by solving classic network optimization problems. We classify that all considered INDS problems as NP-Hard and propose a novel heuristic dispatching rule algorithm that selects and schedules sets of arcs based on their interactions in the network. We present computational analysis based on realistic data sets representing the infrastructures of coastal New Hanover County, North Carolina, lower Manhattan, New York, and a realistic arti cial community CLARC County. These tests demonstrate the importance of a dispatching rule to arrive at near-optimal solutions during real-time decision making activities. We extend INDS problems to incorporate release dates which represent the earliest an operation can be performed and exible release dates through the introduction of specialized machine(s) that can perform work to move the release date earlier in time. An online optimization setting is explored where the release date of a component is not known.

In this article, the dual cycling quay crane scheduling problem (D-QCSP) with hatches is addressed to minimize the operation cycles of quay cranes. The problem is decomposed into two sub-problems: the intra-group stage (sequencing stacks within each hatch) and the inter-group stage (scheduling all hatches). A new stack sequencing method is constructed for stacks of each hatch, which is modelled as a two-machine non-permutation flow shop scheduling problem. By removing inner gaps using left-shifting, the adapted hatch scheduling sub-problem is modelled as a two-machine grouped flow shop scheduling problem, which contains more precise processing times. A composite heuristic is proposed for the D-QCSP. Based on the derived lower bound, the heuristic is compared with the best existing heuristics on a large number of instances. Experimental results illustrate that the proposal outperforms the existing methods on all instances and dual cycling needs many fewer quay crane operating cycles than single cycling.

Introduction. The practice of modern pediatric dentistry requires delivery of quality care in combination with adherence to excellent business as well as time management principles. A definite appointment schedule should be presented to the parents on the first or second appointment. More importantly, the prescribed schedule should be followed to the best of the professional abilities of the pediatric dentist. Aims. The aim of the study was to assess the co-relation between appointment scheduling and patient satisfaction in a pediatric dental setup with the objective of understanding the parameters related to appointment scheduling to increase patient satisfaction. Method. A total of 40 patients, who visited the Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, YMT Dental College & Hospital, for dental treatment were selected on a random basis. A questionnaire with a set of 6 questions with a rating scale of 1–5 to assess the patient satisfaction related to appointment scheduling was prepared. Results. A significant number of the patients were happy with the existing appointment scheduling system barring a few exceptions. PMID:25610464

Pigeons' key pecks produced food under second-order schedules of token reinforcement, with light-emitting diodes serving as token reinforcers. In Experiment 1, tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio 50 schedule and were exchanged for food according to either fixed-ratio or variable-ratio exchange schedules, with schedule type varied across conditions. In Experiment 2, schedule type was varied within sessions using a multiple schedule. In one component, tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio 50 schedule and exchanged according to a variable-ratio schedule. In the other component, tokens were earned according to a variable-ratio 50 schedule and exchanged according to a fixed-ratio schedule. In both experiments, the number of responses per exchange was varied parametrically across conditions, ranging from 50 to 400 responses. Response rates decreased systematically with increases in the fixed-ratio exchange schedules, but were much less affected by changes in the variable-ratio exchange schedules. Response rates were consistently higher under variable-ratio exchange schedules than tinder comparable fixed-ratio exchange schedules, especially at higher exchange ratios. These response-rate differences were due both to greater pre-ratio pausing and to lower local rates tinder the fixed-ratio exchange schedules. Local response rates increased with proximity to food under the higher fixed-ratio exchange schedules, indicative of discriminative control by the tokens. PMID:11599637

Pigeons' key pecks produced food under second-order schedules of token reinforcement, with light-emitting diodes serving as token reinforcers. In Experiment 1, tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio 50 schedule and were exchanged for food according to either fixed-ratio or variable-ratio exchange schedules, with schedule type varied across conditions. In Experiment 2, schedule type was varied within sessions using a multiple schedule. In one component, tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio 50 schedule and exchanged according to a variable-ratio schedule. In the other component, tokens were earned according to a variable-ratio 50 schedule and exchanged according to a fixed-ratio schedule. In both experiments, the number of responses per exchange was varied parametrically across conditions, ranging from 50 to 400 responses. Response rates decreased systematically with increases in the fixed-ratio exchange schedules, but were much less affected by changes in the variable-ratio exchange schedules. Response rates were consistently higher under variable-ratio exchange schedules than tinder comparable fixed-ratio exchange schedules, especially at higher exchange ratios. These response-rate differences were due both to greater pre-ratio pausing and to lower local rates tinder the fixed-ratio exchange schedules. Local response rates increased with proximity to food under the higher fixed-ratio exchange schedules, indicative of discriminative control by the tokens. PMID:11599637

MINERVA is a dedicated exoplanet detection telescope array using radial velocity measurements of nearby stars to detect planets. MINERVA will be a completely robotic facility, with a goal of maximizing the number of exoplanets detected. MINERVA requires a unique application of queue scheduling due to its automated nature and the requirement of high cadence observations. A dispatch scheduling algorithm is employed to create a dynamic and flexible selector of targets to observe, in which stars are chosen by assigning values through a weighting function. I designed and have begun testing a simulation which implements the functions of a dispatch scheduler and records observations based on target selections through the same principles that will be used at the commissioned site. These results will be used in a larger simulation that incorporates weather, planet occurrence statistics, and stellar noise to test the planet detection capabilities of MINERVA. This will be used to heuristically determine an optimal observing strategy for the MINERVA project.

LOFAR, a new radio telescope, will be designed to observe with up to 8 independent beams, thus allowing several simultaneous observations. Scheduling of multiple observations parallel in time, each having their own constraints, requires a more intelligent and flexible scheduling function then operated before. In support of the LOFAR radio telescope project, and in co-operation with Leiden University, Fokker Space has started a study to investigate the suitability of the use of evolutionary algorithms applied to complex scheduling problems. After a positive familiarization phase, we now examine the potential use of evolutionary algorithms via a demonstration project. Results of the familiarization phase, and the first results of the demonstration project are presented in this paper.

We hypothesize that evolutionary algorithms can effectively schedule coordinated fleets of Earth observing satellites. The constraints are complex and the bottlenecks are not well understood, a condition where evolutionary algorithms are often effective. This is, in part, because evolutionary algorithms require only that one can represent solutions, modify solutions, and evaluate solution fitness. To test the hypothesis we have developed a representative set of problems, produced optimization software (in Java) to solve them, and run experiments comparing techniques. This paper presents initial results of a comparison of several evolutionary and other optimization techniques; namely the genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, squeaky wheel optimization, and stochastic hill climbing. We also compare separate satellite vs. integrated scheduling of a two satellite constellation. While the results are not definitive, tests to date suggest that simulated annealing is the best search technique and integrated scheduling is superior.

Computer Resources International (CRI) has many years of experience in developing space planning and scheduling systems for the European Space Agency. Activities range from AIT/AIV planning over mission planning to research in on-board autonomy using advanced planning and scheduling technologies in conjunction with model based diagnostics. This article presents four projects carried out for ESA by CRI with various subcontractors: (1) DI, Distributed Intelligence for Ground/Space Systems is an on-going research project; (2) GMPT, Generic Mission Planning Toolset, a feasibility study concluded in 1993; (3) OPTIMUM-AIV, Open Planning Tool for AIV, development of a knowledge based AIV planning and scheduling tool ended in 1992; and (4) PlanERS-1, development of an AI and knowledge-based mission planning prototype for the ERS-1 earth observation spacecraft ended in 1991.

In this article, I argue that a class of religious behaviors exists that is induced, for prepared organisms, by specific stimuli that are experienced according to a response-independent schedule. Like other schedule-induced behaviors, the members of this class serve as minimal units out of which functional behavior may arise. In this way, there exist two classes of religious behavior: nonoperant schedule-induced behaviors and operant behaviors. This dichotomy is consistent with the distinction insisted upon by religious scholars and philosophers between “graceful” and “effortful” religious behaviors. Embracing the distinction allows an explanation of many aspects of religious experience and behavior that have been overlooked or disregarded by other scientific approaches to religion. PMID:22478521

In this paper, we present an approach to fault tolerant execution of dynamic task graphs scheduled using work stealing. In particular, we focus on selective and localized recovery of tasks in the presence of soft faults. We elicit from the user the basic task graph structure in terms of successor and predecessor relationships. The work stealing-based algorithm to schedule such a task graph is augmented to enable recovery when the data and meta-data associated with a task get corrupted. We use this redundancy, and the knowledge of the task graph structure, to selectively recover from faults with low space and time overheads. We show that the fault tolerant design retains the essential properties of the underlying work stealing-based task scheduling algorithm, and that the fault tolerant execution is asymptotically optimal when task re-execution is taken into account. Experimental evaluation demonstrates the low cost of recovery under various fault scenarios.

This paper describes DTS, a decision-theoretic scheduler designed to employ state-of-the-art probabilistic inference technology to speed the search for efficient solutions to constraint-satisfaction problems. Our approach involves assessing the performance of heuristic control strategies that are normally hard-coded into scheduling systems, and using probabilistic inference to aggregate this information in light of features of a given problem. BPS, the Bayesian Problem-Solver, introduced a similar approach to solving single-agent and adversarial graph search problems, yielding orders-of-magnitude improvement over traditional techniques. Initial efforts suggest that similar improvements will be realizable when applied to typical constraint-satisfaction scheduling problems.

A summary of construction cost and scheduling information is presented for four maglev guideway designs on an example route from Baltimore, MD to Newark, NJ. This work results from the National Maglev Initiative (NMI), a government-industry effort from 1989 to 1994. The system design concepts used as a basis for developing cost and construction scheduling information, were submitted by four industry consortia solely for this analysis, and represent their own unpublished designs. The detailed cost and construction schedule analyses cover the main guideway only. A summary estimate was made for stations, power distribution systems, maintenance facilities, and other types of infrastructure. The results of the analyses indicate a number of design aspects which must receive further consideration by future designers. These aspects will affect the practical and economic construction and long-term maintenance of a high-speed maglev guideway.

Implementation and results of an expert system used for scheduling session requests for the Systems Engineering Simulator (SES) laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) are discussed. Weekly session requests are received from astronaut crew trainers, procedures developers, engineering assessment personnel, software developers, and various others who wish to access the computers, scene generators, and other simulation equipment available to them in the SES lab. The expert system under discussion is comprised of a data acquisition portion - two Pascal programs run on a personal computer - and a CLIPS program installed on a minicomputer. A brief introduction to the SES lab and its scheduling background is given. A general overview of the system is provided, followed by a detailed description of the constraint-reduction process and of the scheduler itself. Results from a ten-week trial period using this approach are discussed. Finally, a summary of the expert system's strengths and shortcomings are provided.

MetaCentrum - The Czech National Grid provides access to various resources across the Czech Republic. The utilized resource management and scheduling system is based on a heavily modified version of the Torque Batch System. This open source resource manager is maintained in a local fork and was extended to facilitate the requirements of such a large installation. This paper provides an overview of unique features deployed in MetaCentrum. Notably, we describe our distributed setup that encompasses several standalone independent servers while still maintaining full cooperative scheduling across the grid. We also present the benefits of our virtualized infrastructure that enables our schedulers to dynamically request ondemand virtual machines, that are then used to facilitate the varied requirements of users in our system, as well as enabling support for user requested virtual clusters that can be further interconnected using a private VLAN.

Reports in the English language of the treatment of primary syphilis are reviewed. Except for benzathine penicillin, the efficacy of the currently recommended dosage schedules are documented only by Schroeter et al. Although these investigators reported generally acceptable failure rates, further study is necessary to determine: (1) if differences in efficacy exist among regimes; (2) if the current schedules are equally effective in both primary and secondary syphilis; and (3) if increased dosages reduce failure rates. PMID:1010777